Pattern Matching in Strings | Dataford Interview Questions

Rokt placement identifiers can be filtered by wildcard patterns before a placement is selected. Implement match_pattern(text, pattern) to determine whether the entire text matches pattern.

The pattern supports two special characters:

? matches exactly one character.
* matches zero or more characters, including characters matched by other wildcards.

All other characters match themselves exactly. Matching is case-sensitive, and the pattern must consume the entire string. Return True for a complete match and False otherwise.

Formal Specification

Input: Two strings, text and pattern.
Output: A boolean indicating whether the entire text matches the entire pattern.

Constraints

0 <= len(text), len(pattern) <= 10^5
text and pattern contain printable ASCII characters
Only ? and * are wildcard operators
A pattern may contain consecutive * characters
Matching is case-sensitive and must cover the entire text

Function Signature

def match_pattern(text, pattern):

Your question is Pattern Matching in Strings. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem