Ask HN: Why do this: “Please mention the word 'crane' in your application”?

It's testing to see if you read the instructions, or to filter out people who cut'n'paste hundreds of applications, or possibly to block bots but I don't really know why someone would write a bot to apply for jobs.

Maybe something like this?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brown-out/

To check if the candidate read through the profile/anti-bot.

I would not use it.