Python program to check matching of simple parentheses

Question

I am a Python newbie and I came across this exercise of checking whether or not the simple brackets \"(\", \")\" in a given string are matched evenly.

I have seen ex

Answer 1

    #function to check if number of closing brackets is equal to the number of opening brackets
    #this function also checks if the closing bracket appears after the opening bracket
    def matched(str1):
        if str1.count(")")== str1.count("("):
            p1=str1.find("(")
            p2=str1.find(")")
            if p2 >= p1:
                str1=str1[p1+1:p2]+ str1[p2+1:]
                if str1.count(")")>0 and str1.count("(")>0:
                    matched(str1)
                return True
            else:
                return False
        else:
            return False

    matched(str1)