Bracket substrings matching any pattern

Problem Statement

Given an input string s and a list of patterns (an array of strings), implement a function that replaces the first occurrence of any pattern found in s. If multiple patterns can start at the same leftmost position, choose the longest one. If multiple patterns appear at different positions, prioritize the one that starts earliest. After performing the replacement, return the resulting string. If no pattern is found, return the original string.

Function Signature

def replace_first_pattern(s: str, patterns: list[str]) -> str:

Constraints

• s length: 0 to 1000.
• patterns length: 1 to 50.
• Pattern length: 1 to 20.
• Assume a simple replacement character (e.g., "?").

Examples

Example 1: Input: s = "abccde", patterns = ["bc", "bcc"] Output: "a?de" Explanation: Both "bc" and "bcc" start at index 1. "bcc" is longer, so it is replaced first.

Example 2: Input: s = "hello world", patterns = ["world", "hello"] Output: "? world" Explanation: "hello" starts at index 0, which is earlier than the match for "world" at index 6.

Edge Cases

• Empty string s.
• Overlapping patterns where one is a prefix of another.
• No matches found.