def plucky(A, B, L): n = len(A) # using -1 since it won't affect "maxes" since A, B elements and L are > 0 OPA = [-1]*n OPB = [-1]*n OPA[0] = A[0] OPA[1] = OPA[0] + A[1] OPB[1] = OPA[0] + B[1] - L for k in range(2, n): sbea = OPB[k-1] + A[k] - L saea = OPA[k-1] + A[k] sbeb = OPB[k-1] + B[k] saeb = OPA[k-1] + B[k] - L OPA[k] = max(sbea, saea) OPB[k] = max(sbeb, saeb) return max(OPA[n-1], OPB[n-1]) A = [1000, 1, 1] B = [2, 1000, 1000] L = 1000 print(plucky(A, B, L))