The solution here is obvious to me. The specific problem with this scenario is that they give the audition too early in the process: they want to have a set of

The solution here is obvious to me. The specific problem with this scenario is that they give the audition too early in the process: they want to have a set of fully fleshed out apps to compared candidates from and use that as an initial/mid level filter. This is disrespectful on the part of the company precisely because in the best case only one will be hired (more likely none will be hired). It utterly devalues the time of prospective employees for the benefit of the company. This is wrong. The solution here is to give the "audition" after the candidate has passed all of your other filters, and commit in writing to hiring the candidate if they do a decent job on the audition. And no wishy-washy bullshit: have an objective criteria to measure against and judge it fairly. This is the kicker here, which of course will be the tough swallow for most companies. Paying for their time is nice, but its really missing the pain point here. If you want someone to commit a disproportionate amount of time in the process of auditioning for your company, you need to put yourself on the hook in a similar manner.