Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / ii / Paper 3 / 2F / a

For $n\ge 3$, extend the restriction of the continuous function $f$ to $[1/n,1-1/n]$ to a continuous function $f_n$ on $[0,1]$ by making it constant on each of the two remaining intervals. The Weierstrass approximation theorem supplies a polynomial $P_n$ with $\Vert P_n-f_n{\Vert }_{\infty ,[0,1]}<1/n$. Every compact set $K\subset (0,1)$ is eventually contained in $[1/n,1-1/n]$, where $f_n=f$. Hence ${\sup }_K|P_n-f|<1/n$ eventually. This proves uniform convergence on every compact subset, without assuming any endpoint limits of $f$. The first two polynomials can be chosen arbitrarily.