Python Programming Challenges for beginners?

[n00m]

PS
My straightforward C++ solution got TLE...

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    //freopen("88.txt", "rt", stdin);
    //freopen("99.txt", "wt", stdout);
    int tcs;
    string s;
    cin >> tcs;
    while (tcs-- > 0) {
        cin >> s;
        int n = s.size();
        s = s + ' ';
        vector< vector<int> > a(256);
        int ans = 0;
        for (int i = n - 1; i >= 0; --i) {
            int lev = 0;
            vector<int> p = a[s[i]];
            vector<int> q;
            while (!p.empty()) {
                q.clear();
                ++lev;
                for (int j = 0; j < p.size(); ++j) {
                    if (s[p[j] + 1] == s[i + lev]) {
                        q.push_back(p[j] + 1);
                    }
                }
                p.swap(q);
            }
            a[s[i]].push_back(i);
            ans += n - i - lev;
        }
        cout << ans << endl;
    }

return 0;
}