input: from typing import List
  
  def autocomplete(input_text: str) -> List[str]:
      """This function generates an autocomplete list based on the input text.
      It first generates word candidates, then filters them, ranks them, and
      returns the top 5 matches.
      
      >>> autocomplete("the")
      ['they', 'their', 'there', 'them', 'themselves']
      
      >>> autocomplete("app")
      ['apple', 'application', 'apps', 'apply', 'appear']
      """
output:     word_candidates = ["they", "their", "there", "them", "themselves", "apple", "application", "apps", "apply", "appear"]
      filtered_candidates = [word for word in word_candidates if word.startswith(input_text)]
      ranked_candidates = sorted(filtered_candidates, key=lambda x: (-len(x), x))
      return ranked_candidates[:5]