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 (3.8.2) (judge verdict: Accepted)

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

if n<=2:
    print(1)
    exit(0)


flg=0
cnt=0

tmp=[]
for i in range(1,n):
    if a[i]>a[i-1]:
        tmp.append(1)
    elif a[i]==a[i-1]:
        tmp.append(0)
    else:
        tmp.append(-1)
flg=0
swi=0
for j in range(len(tmp)):
    if swi==1:
        flg=tmp[j]
        swi=0
        continue
    
    if flg==0:
        flg=tmp[j]
    elif flg==1:
        if tmp[j]==-1:
            cnt+=1
            flg=-1
            swi=1
    elif flg==-1:
        if tmp[j]==1:
            cnt+=1
            flg=1
            swi=1

print(cnt+1)