MonotoneSequence | Topcoder Archive

Problem Statement

A strictly increasing sequence is a sequence of numbers where each number is strictly greater than the previous one. A strictly decreasing sequence is a sequence where each number is strictly less than the previous one. A strictly monotone sequence is a sequence that is either strictly increasing or strictly decreasing. For example, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 9, 8, 7, 1, are strictly monotone sequences, while 1, 5, 2, 6 and 1, 2, 2, 3 are not.

Given a sequence seq, determine the length of the longest contiguous subsequence that is strictly monotone (see examples for clarifications).

Definition

Class:: MonotoneSequence
Method:: longestMonotoneSequence
Parameters:: int[]
Returns:: int
Method signature:: int longestMonotoneSequence(int[] seq)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

seq will contain between 1 and 50 elements, inclusive.
Each element of seq will be between 1 and 100, inclusive.

Examples

```
{1, 7, 7, 8, 3, 6, 7, 2}
```
```
Returns: 3
```
The longest contiguous monotone subsequence is 3, 6, 7. The sequence 1, 3, 6, 7 is not valid because 1 and 3 are not adjacent, and 1, 7, 7, 8 is not valid because it is not strictly increasing.
```
{1, 1, 1, 1, 1}
```
```
Returns: 1
```
A sequence of one element is valid.

{10, 20, 30, 25, 20, 19, 20, 18, 23}

Returns: 4

```
{3, 2, 1, 4}
```
```
Returns: 3
```

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