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)

n = int(input())
nums = list(map(int,input().split()))

def search(nums, state):
    cur = nums[0]
    ans = 1
    for num in nums[1:]:
        if state == "up":
            if cur > num:
                ans += 1
                state = "neutral"
        
        elif state == "down":
            if cur < num:
                ans += 1
                state = "neutral"
        
        elif state == "neutral":
            if cur > num:
                state = "down"
            elif cur < num:
                state = "up"
            else:
                state = "neutral"
        
        cur = num
    return ans 
    
print(min(search(nums, "up"), search(nums, "down")))