Smallest and largest

Find both ends of a list in a single pass.

Keep two values at once, both starting as the first item. Check each number against both: it may replace the smallest, the largest, or neither.

Write min_max(nums) that returns a list [smallest, largest] using one loop and no min or max. The list is never empty.

def min_max(nums):
    smallest = nums[0]
    largest = nums[0]
    # one loop updates both
    return [smallest, largest]

Click Run to see the output here.

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