Candy

There are N children standing in a line. Each child is assigned a rating value.

You are giving candies to these children subjected to the following requirements:

• Each child must have at least one candy.
• Children with a higher rating get more candies than their neighbors.

What is the minimum candies you must give?

class Solution:
    # @param ratings, a list of integer
    # @return an integer
    def candy(self, ratings):
        mark = [1 for i in range(len(ratings))]
        # left to right
        i=1
        while i < len(mark):
            if ratings[i] > ratings[i-1]:
                mark[i]=mark[i-1]+1
            i=i+1
        #right to left
        i=len(mark)-2
        while i>=0:
            if ratings[i] > ratings[i+1]:
                mark[i]=max(mark[i+1]+1,mark[i])
            i=i-1
                
        return sum(mark)