greedy · Problem 1 of 2
Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock
Amazon
Google
Meta
Microsoft
Apple
Goldman SachsYou are given an array prices where prices[i] is the price of a given stock on the i-th day.
You want to maximize your profit by choosing a single day to buy one stock and choosing a different day in the future to sell that stock.
Return the maximum profit you can achieve from this transaction. If you cannot achieve any profit, return 0.
maxProfit([7, 1, 5, 3, 6, 4]) -> 5
// Buy on day 2 (price = 1) and sell on day 5 (price = 6), profit = 6 - 1 = 5.
maxProfit([7, 6, 4, 3, 1]) -> 0
// Prices strictly decrease, so no profitable transaction is possible.Your solution
Runs your code and animates it without grading anything. Change the input to see what it does on a case the tests do not cover.
Tests
5 cases, 1 hidden| call | type | expected | result |
|---|---|---|---|
| maxProfit([7,1,5,3,6,4]) | standard profitable case | 5 | — |
| maxProfit([7,6,4,3,1]) | strictly decreasing prices | 0 | — |
| maxProfit([1,4]) | two days profitable | 3 | — |
| maxProfit([5]) | single day no transactions | 0 | — |
| withheld | hidden | withheld | — |
Hidden cases run too — their inputs aren't listed here, so aim for a general solution rather than one fitted to the cases above.
Complexity
- target time
- O(n)
- target space
- O(1)
Greedy single-pass scan maintaining running minimum and maximum profit.
Hints
Stuck? Hints open one at a time, each giving a little more away.
3 hints left