diff --git a/solutions/challenge_8/README.md b/solutions/challenge_8/README.md
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+# Challenge: Palindrome Detector
+
+## Description
+
+The "Palindrome Detector" challenge involves determining if a given string
+or bytes is a palindrome.
+A palindrome is a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as
+forward, ignoring spaces, punctuation, and case.
+
+Write a function that takes a string or bytes as input and returns `True` if
+it is a palindrome, and `False` otherwise.
+
+For example:
+
+- The string `A man, a plan, a canal, Panama` is a palindrome.
+- The string `hello` is not a palindrome.
+- The bytes `b"racecar"` is a palindrome.
+- The bytes `b"hello"` is not a palindrome.
+
+## Example
+
+```python
+is_palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal, Panama")
+# Output: True (ignoring spaces, punctuation, and case)
+
+is_palindrome("hello")
+# Output: False (not a palindrome)
+
+is_palindrome(b"racecar")
+# Output: True (ignoring spaces, punctuation, and case)
+
+is_palindrome(b"hello")
+# Output: False (not a palindrome)
diff --git a/solutions/challenge_8/__init__.py b/solutions/challenge_8/__init__.py
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diff --git a/solutions/challenge_8/palindrome_detector.py b/solutions/challenge_8/palindrome_detector.py
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+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+A module for checking if a given string or bytes is a palindrome.
+
+Module contents:
+    - is_palindrome: Determines if a string or bytes is a palindrome.
+
+Created on 09/01/2025
+Author: Semira Tesfai
+"""
+
+import re
+from typing import Union
+
+
+def is_palindrome(s: Union[str, bytes]) -> bool:
+    """Determines if a given string or bytes is a palindrome.
+
+    Parameters:
+        s: Union[str, bytes], the input string or bytes to be checked
+
+    Returns -> bool: True if the input is a palindrome, False otherwise
+
+    Raises:
+        TypeError: If the input is not a string or bytes
+
+    Examples:
+        >>> is_palindrome("A man, a plan, a canal, Panama")
+        True
+        >>> is_palindrome("hello")
+        False
+        >>> is_palindrome(b"racecar")
+        True
+        >>> is_palindrome(b"hello")
+        False
+    """
+    if not isinstance(s, (str, bytes)):
+        raise TypeError("Input must be a string or bytes")
+
+    if isinstance(s, bytes):
+        s = s.decode("utf-8")  # Decode bytes to string
+
+    cleaned_s = re.sub(r"[^A-Za-z0-9]", "", s).lower()
+    return cleaned_s == cleaned_s[::-1]
diff --git a/solutions/tests/challenge_8/__init__.py b/solutions/tests/challenge_8/__init__.py
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diff --git a/solutions/tests/challenge_8/test_palindrome_detector.py b/solutions/tests/challenge_8/test_palindrome_detector.py
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+++ b/solutions/tests/challenge_8/test_palindrome_detector.py
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+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+Unit tests for palindrome_detector.py
+
+Created on 09/01/2025
+Author: Semira Tesfai
+"""
+
+import unittest
+
+from solutions.challenge_8.palindrome_detector import is_palindrome
+
+
+class TestIsPalindrome(unittest.TestCase):
+    """
+    Test cases for the is_palindrome function.
+    """
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        """
+        Set up any state tied to the test execution. Invoked for every test method.
+        """
+        self.simple_palindromes = ["racecar", "madam"]
+        self.complex_palindromes = ["A Santa at NASA", "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama"]
+        self.non_palindromes = ["hello", "This is not a palindrome"]
+        self.bytes_palindromes = [b"racecar", b"madam"]
+        self.bytes_non_palindromes = [b"hello", b"This is not a palindrome"]
+
+    def test_simple_palindrome(self):
+        """
+        Test that simple palindromes are correctly identified.
+        """
+        for sp in self.simple_palindromes:
+            with self.subTest(sp=sp):
+                self.assertTrue(is_palindrome(sp))
+
+    def test_complex_palindrome(self):
+        """
+        Test that complex palindromes are correctly identified.
+        """
+        for cp in self.complex_palindromes:
+            with self.subTest(cp=cp):
+                self.assertTrue(is_palindrome(cp))
+
+    def test_non_palindrome(self):
+        """
+        Test that non-palindromic words and phrases are correctly identified.
+        """
+        for np in self.non_palindromes:
+            with self.subTest(np=np):
+                self.assertFalse(is_palindrome(np))
+
+    def test_bytes_palindrome(self):
+        """
+        Test that palindromes with bytes input are correctly identified.
+        """
+        for bp in self.bytes_palindromes:
+            with self.subTest(bp=bp):
+                self.assertTrue(is_palindrome(bp))
+
+    def test_bytes_non_palindrome(self):
+        """
+        Test that non-palindromic words and phrases with bytes input are correctly identified.
+        """
+        for bnp in self.bytes_non_palindromes:
+            with self.subTest(bnp=bnp):
+                self.assertFalse(is_palindrome(bnp))
+
+    def test_invalid_input(self):
+        """
+        Test that invalid input raises the appropriate exception.
+        """
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            is_palindrome(12345)
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            is_palindrome(None)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        """
+        Tear down any state that was previously set up with a call to setUp().
+        """
+        pass