wow this is crazy, thank you

i did the same. python is so useful when it comes to counting the number of occurences

No looping?

So, how were "max" and "count" calculated?

This is wrong if you do an interview. They most likely want to see a solution which is O(n) and yours is O(n^2).

This is mine, which is O(n):

def birthdayCakeCandles(ar):
    max_h = ar[0]
    max_n = 1
    for c in ar[1:]:
        if c > max_h:
            max_h = c
            max_n = 1
        elif c == max_h:
            max_n += 1
    print(max_n)