Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock
Easy
Array
Dynamic Programming
You 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`.
Example 1
Input: prices = [7,1,5,3,6,4]
Output: 5
Explanation: Buy on day 2 (price = 1) and sell on day 5 (price = 6), profit = 6-1 = 5.
Example 2
Input: prices = [7,6,4,3,1]
Output: 0
Explanation: No profit possible.

Constraints

  • 1 <= prices.length <= 10⁵
  • 0 <= prices[i] <= 10⁴
Time Complexity
O(n)
Space Complexity
O(1)
14
Case 1
Input: [7,1,5,3,6,4]
Expected: 5
Case 2
Input: [7,6,4,3,1]
Expected: 0