I went for a job, was given a vague programming task. I spent days on it and was rejected. When I asked why they told me it wasn't what they wanted. I asked wha

I went for a job, was given a vague programming task. I spent days on it and was rejected. When I asked why they told me it wasn't what they wanted. I asked what was. What they told me approximately (and that was pretty unfocussed) I was stunned, there was no way I could have got that. Partly a lack of domain knowledge (but the level of expertise expected wasn't stated, apparently telepathy should have been used or something) but mainly the spec was so utterly vague you could not IMO deduce anything useful from it. I resolved if I was ever given such a non-spec coding task ever again, I'd drop it immediately. I'd recommend to others do do the same. tl;dr if they don't give you a reasonably clear spec, walk away. Edit: the situation is very asymmetric. They can well afford to waste your time, where you is any number of candidates that apply. There's no comeback on them for being wankers. Another example, I applied for a job, told them I could do it even though I didn't have language X, but I sure knew Y. They asked me to prove I knew Y so I wrote a very detailed breakdown showing I had immense knowledge, maybe more than he had. He dismissed 12 hours work with 4 words "you don't have X". Draw your own conclusions.