Just for fun, I’m trying to solve UVA 11078 (Open Credit System).

The goal is to find a maximum consecutive difference for a given list of integers:

For example: given this list of four numbers: 7 10 3 1 the maximum consecutive difference is 9, since 10 - 1 = 9.

In the problem, first a number of testcases T is given, then the amount of numbers n, and then the individual numbers. This input (with T = 2, first n = 4 and then n = 2) for example

2
4
7
10
3
1
2
100
20

Would result in two testcases, one of 4 numbers (7 10 3 1) and one of 2 numbers (100 20). Output of this should be:

9
80

I implemented the following Python program, and I would think this would have complexity O(n) since it goes through each number only once, but still UVA is giving me Time Limit Exceeded.

import math
T = int(input())
for _ in range(T):
    n = int(input())
    diff = -math.inf

    score = int(input()) # Using the very first input as max and min
    max = score
    min = score
    for i in range(1,n):
        score = int(input())
        if max - score > diff:
            diff = max - score
        if score > max:
            max = score
        if score < min:
            min = score
    print(diff)

Anyone with some pointers on how to improve this solution? I have seen other solutions to this problem, but I’m somewhat confused to why this solution would be slow…