Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock
You have access to an array where each element represents the price of a specific stock on a given day. Your objective is to maximize profit by selecting one day to purchase the stock and a different, future day to sell it. Determine and return the maximum profit achievable. If it's impossible to generate a profit, return 0.
Input: prices = [9,3,8,2,7,5]
Output: 5
Explanation: Purchase on day 2 (price = 3) and sell on day 5 (price = 7) for a profit of 7 - 3 = 4.

Question

Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock

You have access to an array where each element represents the price of a specific stock on a given day. Your objective is to maximize profit by selecting one day to purchase the stock and a different, future day to sell it. Determine and return the maximum profit achievable. If it's impossible to generate a profit, return 0.

Input: prices = [9,3,8,2,7,5]

Output: 5

Explanation: Purchase on day 2 (price = 3) and sell on day 5 (price = 7) for a profit of 7 - 3 = 4.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

def maxProfit(prices):
    if len(prices) <= 1:
        return 0
    min_so_far = prices[0]
    max_profit = 0
    for i in range(len(prices)):
        max_profit = max(max_profit, prices[i] - min_so_far)        
        min_so_far = min(min_so_far, prices[i])
    
    return max_profit

Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock

Practice this question with AI

Go Premium

Community Answers

Unlock Full Access

Practice More Questions