Codility经典算法题之十六：MaxProductOfThree

Task description:

A non-empty array A consisting of N integers is given. The product of triplet (P, Q, R) equates to A[P] * A[Q] * A[R] (0 ≤ P < Q < R < N).

For example, array A such that:

A[0] = -3 A[1] = 1 A[2] = 2 A[3] = -2 A[4] = 5 A[5] = 6

contains the following example triplets:

• (0, 1, 2), product is −3 * 1 * 2 = −6
• (1, 2, 4), product is 1 * 2 * 5 = 10
• (2, 4, 5), product is 2 * 5 * 6 = 60

Your goal is to find the maximal product of any triplet.

Write a function:

class Solution { public int solution(int[] A); }

that, given a non-empty array A, returns the value of the maximal product of any triplet.

For example, given array A such that:

A[0] = -3 A[1] = 1 A[2] = 2 A[3] = -2 A[4] = 5 A[5] = 6

the function should return 60, as the product of triplet (2, 4, 5) is maximal.

Assume that:

• N is an integer within the range [3..100,000];
• each element of array A is an integer within the range [−1,000..1,000].

Complexity:

• expected worst-case time complexity is O(N*log(N));
• expected worst-case space complexity is O(1), beyond input storage (not counting the storage required for input arguments).

Solution：

下面是拷贝的其他博主的答案，其实并不是很理解，代码非常简洁，只比较前两个和最后一个相乘以及最后三个相乘的结果就可以了吗？

def solution(A):
    A.sort()
    return max(A[0] * A[1] * A[-1],A[-1] * A[-2] * A[-3])