Maximum Product of Three Numbers

Question

Given an integer array, find three numbers whose product is maximum and output the maximum product.

Example 1:

Input: [1,2,3]
Output: 6

Example 2:

Input: [1,2,3,4]
Output: 24

Note:

1. The length of the given array will be in range [3,104] and all elements are in the range [-1000, 1000].
2. Multiplication of any three numbers in the input won't exceed the range of 32-bit signed integer.

Tags

• Array
• Mathematics

Thought

1. Sort the array
2. Compute the product according to the sorted array

Code

class Solution(object):
    def maximumProduct(self, nums):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :rtype: int
        """
        nums.sort()
        return max(nums[0]*nums[1]*nums[-1], nums[-1]*nums[-2]*nums[-3])