An array is monotonic if it is either monotone increasing or monotone decreasing.
An array nums is monotone increasing if for all i <= j, nums[i] <= nums[j]. An array nums is monotone decreasing if for all i <= j, nums[i] >= nums[j].
Given an integer array nums, return true if the given array is monotonic, or false otherwise.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [1,2,2,3]
Output: true
Example 2:
Input: nums = [6,5,4,4]
Output: true
Example 3:
Input: nums = [1,3,2]
Output: false
Constraints:
1 <= nums.length <= 105
-105 <= nums[i] <= 105
Solutions
Solution 1: Single Traversal
We traverse the array, and if an increasing or decreasing situation occurs, we record it. We then check whether both increasing and decreasing situations have occurred. If both have occurred, it means that the array is not monotonic, and we return false.
Otherwise, if we reach the end of the traversal, it means that the array is monotonic, and we return true.
The time complexity is $O(n)$, where $n$ is the length of the array. The space complexity is $O(1)$.