628. Maximum Product of Three Numbers

solution628.py

# https://leetcode.com/problems/maximum-product-of-three-numbers/description/

class Solution(object):
    def maximumProduct(self, nums):
        """
        :type nums: List[int]
        :rtype: int
        """
        length = len(nums)
        if length == 3:
            return nums[0] * nums[1] * nums[2]
        
        nums.sort()
        
        head = 0
        tail = len(nums) - 1
        
        nums_found = 0
        while nums_found < 3:
            if (nums[head] * nums[head+1]) > (nums[tail-1] * nums[tail]) and nums_found <= 1 :
                head += 2
            else:
                tail -= 1
            nums_found = head + (length - 1 - tail)

        
        
        ans = 1
        
        for x in nums[:head]:
            ans *= x
        
        for x in nums[tail + 1:]:
            ans *= x
        
        return ans