A software engineer recorded a mean of 72 code commits per sprint over a period of 12 sprints. If the sprint with the highest number of commits is excluded, the mean drops to 70. What was the highest number of commits in a single sprint?

The correct answer is 94.

To find the highest number of commits in a single sprint, we can set up a simple calculation based on the total number of commits before and after excluding the sprint with the maximum commits.

Step 1: Calculate the total number of commits for all 12 sprints.
The mean number of commits per sprint over 12 sprints is 72. Therefore, the total number of commits in all 12 sprints combined is:

$\text{Total commits (12 sprints)}=12\times 72$

$12\times 72=864$

Step 2: Calculate the total number of commits for the remaining 11 sprints.
When the sprint with the highest number of commits is excluded, 11 sprints remain, and their mean drops to 70. The total number of commits in these 11 sprints is:

$\text{Total commits (11 sprints)}=11\times 70$

$11\times 70=770$

Step 3: Find the highest number of commits in a single sprint.
The difference between the total commits of all 12 sprints and the total commits of the remaining 11 sprints gives the number of commits in the excluded (highest) sprint:

$\text{Highest number of commits}=864-770$

$864-770=94$

Thus, the highest number of commits in a single sprint was 94.