Traverse from the second element to the second last element
for i in range ( 1 , n - 1 ) : NEW_LINE INDENT if ( p [ i - 1 ] > p [ i ] and p [ i ] > p [ i + 1 ] ) : NEW_LINE INDENT ans += 1 ; NEW_LINE DEDENT elif ( p [ i - 1 ] < p [ i ] and p [ i ] < p [ i + 1 ] ) : NEW_LINE INDENT ans += 1 ; NEW_LINE DEDENT DEDENT