Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / Paper 1 / 7 / Solution

The chain rule and the quotient rule giveThe exponential function and denominator are positive, so the stationary points occur exactly at $x=\pm 1$. Their values areThe derivative is negative for $|x|>1$ and positive for $|x|<1$, so $x=-1$ is a local minimum and $x=1$ a local maximum. They are also global extrema, since $-1/2\le x/(1+x^2)\le 1/2$.