In a perfectly competitive market, what condition must be met for a firm to maximize its profit in the long run?

In a perfectly competitive market, a firm maximizes its profit in the long run by producing at a level where its marginal cost equals the market price. This means that the cost of producing one more unit of a good should be the same as the price that consumers are willing to pay for it. When this condition is met, the firm is not losing money on additional units and is also not missing out on potential profits. For example, if a bakery can sell each loaf of bread for $2 and it costs $1. 50 to make each loaf, the bakery should continue producing until the cost of making one more loaf equals $2.