Wildcard and Operator Query Tokenizer | Dataford Interview Questions

Implement a function to parse and tokenize Roblox search queries containing wildcards and operators.

The function must return tokens in order, preserve wildcard characters such as * and ?, normalize standalone operators AND, OR, and NOT to uppercase, and emit parentheses as separate tokens. Quoted phrases remain one token, including their quotes. The function signature is def tokenize_search_query(query):, where query is a string and the result is a list of strings. Operators embedded inside a term are treated as part of that term.

Constraints

1 <= len(query) <= 1000
The query contains Unicode text, whitespace, parentheses, double quotes, wildcard characters, and ordinary search characters.
Only standalone words equal to AND, OR, or NOT, ignoring case, are operators.
Wildcards are preserved and are not expanded or validated.
An unmatched opening quote consumes the remainder of the query.

Function Signature

def tokenize_search_query(query):

Your question is Wildcard and Operator Query Tokenizer. 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

Implement a function to parse and tokenize Roblox search queries containing wildcards and operators.

Constraints

1 <= len(query) <= 1000
The query contains Unicode text, whitespace, parentheses, double quotes, wildcard characters, and ordinary search characters.
Only standalone words equal to AND, OR, or NOT, ignoring case, are operators.
Wildcards are preserved and are not expanded or validated.
An unmatched opening quote consumes the remainder of the query.

Function Signature

def tokenize_search_query(query):

Your question is Wildcard and Operator Query Tokenizer. 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.