'''
An array A consisting of N integers is given. It contains daily prices of a stock share for a period of N consecutive days. If a single share was bought on day P and sold on day Q, where 0 ≤ P ≤ Q < N, then the profit of such transaction is equal to A[Q] − A[P], provided that A[Q] ≥ A[P]. Otherwise, the transaction brings loss of A[P] − A[Q].

For example, consider the following array A consisting of six elements such that:

  A[0] = 23171
  A[1] = 21011
  A[2] = 21123
  A[3] = 21366
  A[4] = 21013
  A[5] = 21367
If a share was bought on day 0 and sold on day 2, a loss of 2048 would occur because A[2] − A[0] = 21123 − 23171 = −2048. If a share was bought on day 4 and sold on day 5, a profit of 354 would occur because A[5] − A[4] = 21367 − 21013 = 354. Maximum possible profit was 356. It would occur if a share was bought on day 1 and sold on day 5.

Write a function,

def solution(A)

that, given an array A consisting of N integers containing daily prices of a stock share for a period of N consecutive days, returns the maximum possible profit from one transaction during this period. The function should return 0 if it was impossible to gain any profit.

For example, given array A consisting of six elements such that:

  A[0] = 23171
  A[1] = 21011
  A[2] = 21123
  A[3] = 21366
  A[4] = 21013
  A[5] = 21367
the function should return 356, as explained above.

Assume that:

N is an integer within the range [0..400,000];
each element of array A is an integer within the range [0..200,000].
Complexity:

expected worst-case time complexity is O(N);
expected worst-case space complexity is O(1) (not counting the storage required for input arguments).
'''

def solution(A):
    # write your code in Python 3.6
    n = len(A)
    if n == 0 or n == 1: return 0
    largest = A[0]
    smallest = A[0]
    max_profit = 0
    for i in range(1,n):
        if A[i] < smallest:
            max_profit = max(max_profit,largest-smallest)
            smallest = A[i]
            largest = A[i]
        if A[i] > largest:
            largest = A[i]
            max_profit = max(max_profit, largest - smallest)
    return max_profit

A = [23171, 21011, 21123, 21366, 21013, 21367]
B = [5,4,3,2,1]
print(solution(B))