Pattern Matching with Sets | Dataford Interview Questions

Given an array of numbers and a string, determine whether the pattern matches (return true/false), e.g. [1,2,1,2] with "dog cat dog cat" -> true. Extend this so that each position can be a set of candidate numbers (e.g. [[1,2],[2],[1,2],[1,2,3,4]]) and you must choose one number per position such that the whole sequence still forms a valid pattern match ('metapatterns'). Asked in the onsite_or_phone_screen stage. This is a Vanta software engineer interview question based on LeetCode "Word Pattern II" with a nested-array/backtracking twist.

candidates is a list of integer lists, one list per word. A match is bijective: equal numbers must map to equal words, and equal words must map to equal numbers. Return a boolean.

Constraints

1 <= len(candidates) <= 50
Each candidate list contains at least one integer
Candidate values are integers
The text contains whitespace-separated words
The number of words equals len(candidates) for a valid-length input
A number-to-word and word-to-number bijection is required

Function Signature

def matches_metapattern(candidates, text):

Your question is Pattern Matching with Sets. 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

candidates is a list of integer lists, one list per word. A match is bijective: equal numbers must map to equal words, and equal words must map to equal numbers. Return a boolean.

Constraints

1 <= len(candidates) <= 50
Each candidate list contains at least one integer
Candidate values are integers
The text contains whitespace-separated words
The number of words equals len(candidates) for a valid-length input
A number-to-word and word-to-number bijection is required

Function Signature

def matches_metapattern(candidates, text):

Your question is Pattern Matching with Sets. 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.