> They didn't care as much about the details of the submittal as they did about seeing what the candidate would do without specific requirements.

This would be acceptable in a world where time is infinite. The reality is that they are going to churn through -who knows- how many candidates, as if it was worthless, as if it was a game.

If they really wanted people to spend little time on the solution, they could include that bit of info in their instructions. Clearly, they omit that bit on purpose. Obviously this is not their first rodeo, they must have done this for a long amount of time now.