List ordering performance comparison

test_1.py

def test_1():
    buf = []

    for i in range(1000):
        buf.append(i)

    buf.reverse()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    import timeit
    print('Testing with append then reverse')
    print(timeit.timeit("test_1()", setup="from __main__ import test_1"))

test_2.py

def test_2():
    buf = []

    for i in range(1000):
        buf.insert(i, 0)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import timeit
    print('Testing with prepend (via list.insert)')
    print(timeit.timeit("test_2()", setup="from __main__ import test_2"))

Results:

python test1.py && python test2.py

Testing with append then reverse
73.3084340096
Testing with prepend (via list.insert)
142.222936869