diff --git a/palindrome_checker.py b/palindrome_checker.py
index c0fdc30..a050a14 100644
--- a/palindrome_checker.py
+++ b/palindrome_checker.py
@@ -1,6 +1,15 @@
-# palindrome_checker.py
 def is_palindrome(s):
-    return s == s[::-1]
+    # Normalize the string: convert to lowercase and filter out non-alphanumeric characters
+    filtered_s = ''.join(c.lower() for c in s if c.isalnum())
+    
+    # Use two-pointer technique to check for palindrome
+    left, right = 0, len(filtered_s) - 1
+    while left < right:
+        if filtered_s[left] != filtered_s[right]:
+            return False
+        left += 1
+        right -= 1
+    return True
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     word = input("Enter a word: ")