Problem:
Score : 300 points

Problem Statement

You are given an array A of length N.
Your task is to divide it into several contiguous subarrays.
Here, all subarrays obtained must be sorted in either non-decreasing or non-increasing order.
At least how many subarrays do you need to divide A into?

Constraints

1 \leq N \leq 10^5

1 \leq A_i \leq 10^9

Each A_i is an integer.

Input

Input is given from Standard Input in the following format:

N
A_1 A_2 ... A_N

Output

Print the minimum possible number of subarrays after division of A.

Sample Input 1

6
1 2 3 2 2 1

Sample Output 1

2

One optimal solution is to divide the array into [1,2,3] and [2,2,1].

Sample Input 2

9
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1

Sample Output 2

5

Sample Input 3

7
1 2 3 2 1 999999999 1000000000

Sample Output 3

3

Solution in Python (3.4.3) (judge verdict: Accepted)

def ii():return int(input())
def iim():return map(int,input().split())
def iil():return list(map(int,input().split()))
def ism():return map(str,input().split())
def isl():return list(map(str,input().split()))

n = ii()
A = iil()

cnt = 1
state = 'first'
for i in A:
#    print(i)
    if state == 'first':
        state = 'even'
    else:
        if state == 'even':
            if i > num:
                state = 'more'
            elif i < num:
                state = 'less'
        elif state == 'more':
            if i < num:
                cnt += 1
                state = 'even'
        elif state == 'less':
            if i > num:
                cnt += 1
                state = 'even'
    num = i
#print((cnt,state))
print(cnt)