[Microsoft] Find Peak Element

There is an integer array which has the following features:

• The numbers in adjacent positions are different.
• A[0] < A[1] && A[A.length - 2] > A[A.length - 1].

We define a position P is a peek if:

A[P] > A[P-1] && A[P] > A[P+1]

Find a peak element in this array. Return the index of the peak.

 Notice

The array may contains multiple peeks, find any of them.

Example

Given [1, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6]

Return index 1 (which is number 2) or 6 (which is number 7)

Challenge 

Time complexity O(logN)

class Solution {
    /**
     * @param A: An integers array.
     * @return: return any of peek positions.
     */
    public int findPeak(int[] A) {
        int start=0;
        int end=A.length-1;
        while(start+1<end){
            int mid=start+(end-start)/2;
            if(A[mid]>A[mid-1] && A[mid]>A[mid+1]){
                return mid;
            }else if(A[mid]<=A[mid-1]){
                end=mid;
            }else if(A[mid]<=A[mid+1]){
                start=mid;
            }
        }
        
        if(A[start]>A[end]){
            return start;
        }else{
            return end;
        }
    }
}