JavaScript (ES6), 135 bytes
Expects a list of words in title case.
f=(a,p=o=0)=>a.map(w=>f(a.filter(W=>W!=w),(p+0+w).replace(/(.?(.*))(?:(.*)0\1$|0\1)/i,(_,a,b,c)=>[w[-!a]]+b+[c])))+a||p[o.length]?o:o=p
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Method
For each permutation \$[w_1,w_2,\dots,w_n]\$ of the input list:
- we start with an empty string \$p\$
- for each word \$w_i\$, we do \$p\gets p\oplus w_i\$
Where the operator \$\oplus\$ will either:
If a full occurrence of \$w_i\$ already exists anywhere in \$p\$ (case insensitive):
→ capitalize the leading letter of \$w_i\$ in \$p\$
Example: \$``\text{Clocks"}\oplus``\text{Lock"}=``\text{C}\color{red}{\text{L}}\text{ocks"}\$
If \$p\$ ends with a prefix of \$w_i\$ (case insensitive):
→ capitalize the leading letter of \$w_i\$ in \$p\$ and append the missing letters
Example: \$``\text{Fish"}\oplus``\text{Shrimp"}=``\text{Fi}\color{red}{\text{S}}\text{h}\color{red}{\text{rimp"}}\$
Otherwise:
→ append \$w_i\$ to \$p\$ (standard concatenation)
Example: \$``\text{Cat"}\oplus``\text{Dog"}=``\text{Cat}\color{red}{\text{Dog}}\text{"}\$
The output is the shortest \$p\$.
Implementation of \$\oplus\$
(p + 0 + w) // we work on the concatenation of p, "0" and w
.replace( //
/(.?(.*))(?:(.*)0\1$|0\1)/i, // /(.?(.*)) capture a reference substring in p
// with the leading letter apart
// (?: followed by either:
// (.*) an optional padding string,
// 0 the separator,
// \1 the reference substring,
// $ the end of the string
// (i.e. the reference substring is
// a full occurrence of w)
// | or:
// 0 the separator,
// \1 the reference substring
// (i.e. the reference substring is
// a suffix of p and a prefix of w)
// )/i case insensitive
( //
_, // the full match is ignored
a, // a = ref. substring
b, // b = ref. substring without its leading letter
c // c = padding string
) => //
[w[-!a]] + // if a is not empty, append the leading letter
// of w (which is capitalized)
b + // append the other letters of the ref. substring
[c] // append the padding string
// (or an empty string if undefined)
) //
restricted-timeconstraint, which may be a showstopper for many (including me). \$\endgroup\$CATaTonicto the 3rd test case for clarity on the rule about multiple possible solutions. \$\endgroup\$