gistfile1.rb

# Please answer in either 
# Ruby, 
# Perl, 
# PHP, 
# Python or 
# Java HTMLCONTROL Forms.HTML:Hidden.1 

# 1. Convert this string
# string = "{key:[[value_1, value_2],[value_3, value4]], 5:10:00AM]}"
# to this hash:
# h = {"key" => [["value_1", "value_2"],["value_3", "value4"]], 5=>"10:00AM"}
# then convert h to JSON.
# Please note that the brackets are unbalanced on purpose.

string = "{key:[[value_1, value_2],[value_3, value4]], 5:10:00AM]}"

def integerify(str)
  str.to_i.to_s == str ? str.to_i : str
end

def arrayify(str)
  arr = []
  /\A\[\[(.+),\s*(.+)\],\s*\[(.+),\s*(.+)\]\]\z/.match(str) do |n| 
    arr << [n[1], n[2]]
    arr << [n[3], n[4]]
  end
  arr
end

def hashify(str)
  hsh = {}
  /\A\{(.+)\:\s*(.+)\,\s*(.*?)\:\s*(.+)\W+\}\z/.match(str) do |m|
    m2 = arrayify(m[2])
    m3 = integerify(m[3])
    hsh[m[1]] = m2
    hsh[m3] = m[4]
  end
  hsh
end

p result_h = hashify(string)

require 'json'

p result_h.to_json