One thing I’d add to the exercise is an ambiguous requirement the candidate can ask the interviewer about. In my AiSDR interview we could search and ask questions. I thought that was a trap at first, so I kept coding with an assumption I should have checked. Later I learned the CTO wanted to see what I did when I got stuck.

ps also wrote about that interview and my 1000 days at YC company https://domelian.substack.com/p/1000-days-at-yc-company