>>> l = [ 2, 4, 1, 6, 5, 3, 9 ]
>>> sorted(l)
Out[3]: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9]
>>> sorted(l, reverse=True)
Out[4]: [9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
>>> sorted(l)[::-1]
Out[5]: [9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
>>> l += [ 10, 20 ]
>>> sorted(l, reverse=True)
Out[8]: [20, 10, 9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]
>>> sorted(l, reverse=True, key=str)
Out[9]: [9, 6, 5, 4, 3, 20, 2, 10, 1]

>>> sl = sorted(l, reverse=True, key=str)
>>> sl[:5]
Out[11]: [9, 6, 5, 4, 3]
>>> sorted(l, reverse=True, key=str)[:5]
Out[12]: [9, 6, 5, 4, 3]