Practice Instacart Coding Question | Real Coding Interviews

Quick Summary

Find the earliest starting index in a text string where a wildcard pattern matches.
The wildcard character '*' can represent zero or more arbitrary characters, while all other characters must appear in exact order.
Return -1 if no valid match exists within the given string constraints.

What This Tests

Common Patterns

GreedyTwo Pointers

Hint 1

Hint 2

What Interviewers May Ask Next

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python

Test Cases

Input

Output

Expected