CareerCup

/**
 * Function to find if the characters of the sample string are
 * in the same order in the text string. They need not be
 * consecutive.
 *
 * E.g., TextString: Redmond, Washington
 *       SampleString: Rde Waitn
 *
 */

function compare (text, sample) {
  var ptr = 0
  var i = 0
  for (; i < sample.length; ++i) {
    while (text[ptr] !== sample[i]) {
      if (ptr >=  text.length) {
        return false
      }
      ptr++
    }
  }
  return true
}

console.log(compare("Redmond, Washington", "Rdd Waitn"))

Think in terms of automata. Every letter in the sample string is a state, which gets activated when a letter matches, and then it waits for the next state, which is the next letter.
Thus, for a sample string -> s[i] where s[i] denotes i'th letter, s[0] is the first letter, we have this automata in place ( axiomatic ) with s[-1] is the last letter :

( anything not s[0] ) * -> s[0] -> ( anything not s[1] ) * -> s[1] .... -> s[-1] -> end

We are confused about whether or not s[0] should be the first letter and s[-1] should be the last letter of the text string - but those are easy to adjust. Thus, the automata can be coded as (in ZoomBA):

def recognize( pattern_string , text_string ){
  cur_pattern_index = 0 
  for ( char : text_string ){
     continue ( char != pattern_string[ cur_pattern_index ] )
     cur_pattern_index += 1 // matched, so move to next pattern letter 
  }
  return cur_pattern_index == size( pattern_string ) 
}
println ( recognize('Rdd Waitn' , 'Redmond, Washington' ) )
println ( recognize('Rdd Waixtn' , 'Redmond, Washington' ) )