Find Maximum

Scan the array once, keeping the largest value seen so far. The replay highlights when a candidate replaces the running maximum.

Algorithm

Basic Implementation

basic.c

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    int arr[] = {3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6};
    int n = (int)(sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]));
    int best = arr[0];
    for (int i = 1; i < n; ++i) {
        if (arr[i] > best) {
            best = arr[i];
        }
    }
    printf("%d\n", best);
    return 0;
}

Complexity

Time: O(n)
Space: O(1)

Implementation notes

C stores int arr[] = {3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6} as a fixed local array in main, with best initialized from arr[0].
n is computed before any pointer decay with (int)(sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0])), so the loop bounds are i = 1 through i < n.
The for (int i = 1; i < n; ++i) loop reads arr[i] by index and mutates only the scalar best when arr[i] > best; the array contents are never changed.
The trace shows replacements at i=2 (3 -> 4), i=4 (4 -> 5), and i=5 (5 -> 9), then no replacement for values 2 and 6.
printf("%d\n", best) formats the final int as 9. Visible memory is the stack array plus scalar locals; there is no heap allocation or helper function taking an array pointer in this source.

execution replay The checked-in replay follows the language-neutral state table for `array-find-max`.

cross-language comparison This C DSA version keeps the same data and final output as every other DSA book in this wave.