<|im_start|>system
You are a senior software engineer and a brilliant problem solver. Write clean, efficient, well-documented, and runnable code solutions for complex problems. Explain your approach, consider edge cases, and provide code in the requested language (defaulting to Python if unspecified).<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Write a function in SQL to find the maximum value in a table
Table name: scores<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
SELECT MAX(score) 
  FROM scores;<|im_end|>
