Max Of Three

Write a function that returns the largest of three numbers.

max_of_three(a, b, c)

Examples

max_of_three(1, 5, 3)     // → 5
max_of_three(10, 2, 8)    // → 10
max_of_three(4, 4, 4)     // → 4
max_of_three(-1, -5, -2)  // → -1

(Yes, Python's built-in max() does this in one call — but for this problem, practice it with if statements instead. You'll use the built-in freely from here on.)

Walkthrough

Thinking it through

This is the same "running best" pattern that shows up constantly in programming — start with a guess, then compare and update.

def max_of_three(a, b, c):
    biggest = a
    if b > biggest:
        biggest = b
    if c > biggest:
        biggest = c
    return biggest

Start by assuming a is the answer. Then check b: if it's bigger than what you've got so far, it becomes the new "biggest so far". Then check c the same way — importantly, it's compared against the updated biggest, which might already be b, not the original a.

Notice these are two separate if statements, not if/elif. That's deliberate: elif would mean "only check c if the b-check didn't match", but you always need to check c regardless of whether b won the previous comparison — imagine a=1, b=2, c=3: after comparing b, biggest is 2; you still need the second if to compare c=3 against it and update to 3.

main.py

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Console

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