>"went above and beyond"

Definition: Willing to put your thumb on the work side of the scales in a work/life balance for no extra compensation.

See also: Taking advantage of your workforce.

Yup. Bullet.dodged.

If above and beyond is required, how can it be above or beyond?

Above and beyond can be nice, but the whole point is that it is exceptional, in every definition of the word. If all individuals went above and beyond all the time to fulfill expectation to do the same, that sounds like a recipe for a PR or legal disaster because rational limiting judgement is not applied, or intentionally suppressed, in a scenario where somebody is in over their head.

Everything about the interview process is a crapshoot. My last run on the interview circuit had a few like this too, where the "code challenge" is either intrinsically contradictory, or where the interviewers give candidates a "bad score" based on their own failure to understand/process the challenge they issued. Lots of amateurs out there with a "naive cleverness" about this stuff.

This is BS.

They probably were doing interviews to satisfy ongoing visa process for already selected candidate.

And the declining everyone with lame excuse.

This is almost certainly the case.

Going "above and beyond" in a coding assignment can be a slight negative when I'm grading. Albeit this is a security company and adding pieces on top of the requirements could lead to unthought about interactions and more surface area.

But I'm also about work life balance, and honest day's wage for an honest day's work, so I probably defer from that company in a few ways, lol.