Thanks for the reply! You reminded me that time complexity does not depend on the number of traversals (i.e. O(n) vs. O(3n)). Seems that for a while I've been torturing myself in writing algorithmns XD

I think there is a need to add description specification for the case where the input is an array of the same numbers.
I personally take that as a "no" even though it fits both ascending and descending sorting definitions.

Your program will return "yes, ascending" for an array of same numbers while I think that should be a "no".
Of course the description should've made it clear.

The program fails the test when n = 0.

Why do people traverse a list twice when traversing it once is enough?
This is my first program in python - hoping to solve my confusion..

This is the greatest solution I have ever seen.