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I don't like referring to other answers in my answers, as answers should be able to be understood by themselves. However, the top voted answer basically boils down to "The company is a pack of idiots. Run away from them." This gives the OP nothing to improve about themself, and nothing to change in the future. I see areas that the OP could improve, regardless of whether the company has done anything wrong or not, which we as answerers don't actually know, since we have only heard one side of the story.

As far as I can see, you didn't communicate before you started the task that you firmly believed it could not be done in two hours.

Here's the sequence of events how I see it:

1. You were asked to complete a coding challenge
2. When you received the challenge, instead of communicating your concerns, you started coding
3. You rushed the challenge, cutting corners
4. You submitted a low-quality project that didn't work without a lot of fiddling
5. After receiving feedback, you started justifying your work

Here's how I imagine the company saw it:

1. The candidate accepted all the conditions of the challenge
2. The candidate submitted the project on time
3. The project didn't work
4. Our lead developer said the code was very poor quality
5. The candidate started making excuses for their work

Imagine you are in a work situation and your manager/team leader asks you to complete a task in an unreasonable amount of time. If you don't immediately communicate that you can't do that much work in that little time, then any failure is your fault for accepting the initial conditions. You are the expert, not them, and they rely on you to communicate with them.

I can't stress how important it is that both sides have a common understanding of the situation. You had an insurmountable gap of understanding because you missed your opportunity to address it. Next time you have a problem, communicate it straight away or the other party will think everything is fine! Not communicating important information is lying by omission, and any form of lying is unprofessional. How they react to the information is their responsibility, not yours.

I recommend reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in particular:

• Chapter 2: Saying No
• Chapter 3: Saying Yes
• Chapter 10: Estimation
• Chapter 11: Pressure

If the company rejects your application because you asked for feedback and clarification before starting the task, they haven't filtered you out, you have filtered them out as a company you don't want to work for.

I don't like referring to other answers in my answers, as answers should be able to be understood by themselves. However, the currently top voted answer basically boils down to "The company is a pack of idiots. Run away from them." This gives the OP nothing to improve about themself, and nothing to change in the future. I see areas that the OP could improve, regardless of whether the company has done anything wrong or not, which we as answerers don't actually know, since we have only heard one side of the story.

As far as I can see, you didn't communicate before you started the task that you firmly believed it could not be done in two hours.

Here's the sequence of events how I see it:

1. You were asked to complete a coding challenge
2. When you received the challenge, instead of communicating your concerns, you started coding
3. You rushed the challenge, cutting corners
4. You submitted a low-quality project that didn't work without a lot of fiddling
5. After receiving feedback, you started justifying your work

Here's how I imagine the company saw it:

1. The candidate accepted all the conditions of the challenge
2. The candidate submitted the project on time
3. The project didn't work
4. Our lead developer said the code was very poor quality
5. The candidate started making excuses for their work

Imagine you are in a work situation and your manager/team leader asks you to complete a task in an unreasonable amount of time. If you don't immediately communicate that you can't do that much work in that little time, then any failure is your fault for accepting the initial conditions. You are the expert, not them, and they rely on you to communicate with them.

I can't stress how important it is that both sides have a common understanding of the situation. You had an insurmountable gap of understanding because you missed your opportunity to address it. Next time you have a problem, communicate it straight away or the other party will think everything is fine! Not communicating important information is lying by omission, and any form of lying is unprofessional. How they react to the information is their responsibility, not yours.

I recommend reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in particular:

• Chapter 2: Saying No
• Chapter 3: Saying Yes
• Chapter 10: Estimation
• Chapter 11: Pressure

If the company rejects your application because you asked for feedback and clarification before starting the task, they haven't filtered you out, you have filtered them out as a company you don't want to work for.

EDIT

I don't like referring to other answers in my answers, as answers should be able to be understood by themselves. However, the top voted answer basically boils down to "The company is a pack of idiots. Run away from them." This gives the OP nothing to improve about themself, and nothing to change in the future. I see areas that the OP could improve, regardless of whether the company has done anything wrong or not, which we as answerers don't actually know, since we have only heard one side of the story.

ORIGINAL ANSWER

As far as I can see, you didn't communicate before you started the task that you firmly believed it could not be done in two hours.

Here's the sequence of events how I see it:

1. You were asked to complete a coding challenge
2. When you received the challenge, instead of communicating your concerns, you started coding
3. You rushed the challenge, cutting corners
4. You submitted a low-quality project that didn't work without a lot of fiddling
5. After receiving feedback, you started justifying your work

Here's how I imagine the company saw it:

1. The candidate accepted all the conditions of the challenge
2. The candidate submitted the project on time
3. The project didn't work
4. Our lead developer said the code was very poor quality
5. The candidate started making excuses for their work

Imagine you are in a work situation and your manager/team leader asks you to complete a task in an unreasonable amount of time. If you don't immediately communicate that you can't do that much work in that little time, then any failure is your fault for accepting the initial conditions. You are the expert, not them, and they rely on you to communicate with them.

I can't stress how important it is that both sides have a common understanding of the situation. You had an insurmountable gap of understanding because you missed your opportunity to address it. Next time you have a problem, communicate it straight away or the other party will think everything is fine! Not communicating important information is lying by omission, and any form of lying is unprofessional. How they react to the information is their responsibility, not yours.

I recommend reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in particular:

• Chapter 2: Saying No
• Chapter 3: Saying Yes
• Chapter 10: Estimation
• Chapter 11: Pressure

EDIT

If the company rejects your application because you asked for feedback and clarification before starting the task, they haven't filtered you out, you have filtered them out as a company you don't want to work for.

I don't like referring to other answers in my answers, as answers should be able to be understood by themselves. However, the top voted answer basically boils down to "The company is a pack of idiots. Run away from them." This gives the OP nothing to improve about themself, and nothing to change in the future. I see areas that the OP could improve, regardless of whether the company has done anything wrong or not, which we as answerers don't actually know, since we have only heard one side of the story.

As far as I can see, you didn't communicate before you started the task that you firmly believed it could not be done in two hours.

Here's the sequence of events how I see it:

1. You were asked to complete a coding challenge
2. When you received the challenge, instead of communicating your concerns, you started coding
3. You rushed the challenge, cutting corners
4. You submitted a low-quality project that didn't work without a lot of fiddling
5. After receiving feedback, you started justifying your work

Here's how I imagine the company saw it:

1. The candidate accepted all the conditions of the challenge
2. The candidate submitted the project on time
3. The project didn't work
4. Our lead developer said the code was very poor quality
5. The candidate started making excuses for their work

Imagine you are in a work situation and your manager/team leader asks you to complete a task in an unreasonable amount of time. If you don't immediately communicate that you can't do that much work in that little time, then any failure is your fault for accepting the initial conditions. You are the expert, not them, and they rely on you to communicate with them.

I can't stress how important it is that both sides have a common understanding of the situation. You had an insurmountable gap of understanding because you missed your opportunity to address it. Next time you have a problem, communicate it straight away or the other party will think everything is fine! Not communicating important information is lying by omission, and any form of lying is unprofessional. How they react to the information is their responsibility, not yours.

I recommend reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in particular:

• Chapter 2: Saying No
• Chapter 3: Saying Yes
• Chapter 10: Estimation
• Chapter 11: Pressure

If the company rejects your application because you asked for feedback and clarification before starting the task, they haven't filtered you out, you have filtered them out as a company you don't want to work for.

As far as I can see, you didn't communicate before you started the task that you firmly believed it could not be done in two hours.

Here's the sequence of events how I see it:

1. You were asked to complete a coding challenge
2. When you received the challenge, instead of communicating your concerns, you started coding
3. You rushed the challenge, cutting corners
4. You submitted a low-quality project that didn't work without a lot of fiddling
5. After receiving feedback, you started justifying your work

Here's how I imagine the company saw it:

1. The candidate accepted all the conditions of the challenge
2. The candidate submitted the project on time
3. The project didn't work
4. Our lead developer said the code was very poor quality
5. The candidate started making excuses for their work

Imagine you are in a work situation and your manager/team leader asks you to complete a task in an unreasonable amount of time. If you don't immediately communicate that you can't do that much work in that little time, then any failure is your fault for accepting the initial conditions. You are the expert, not them, and they rely on you to communicate with them.

I can't stress how important it is that both sides have a common understanding of the situation. You had an insurmountable gap of understanding because you missed your opportunity to address it. Next time you have a problem, communicate it straight away or the other party will think everything is fine! Not communicating important information is lying by omission, and any form of lying is unprofessional. How they react to the information is their responsibility, not yours.

I recommend reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in particular:

• Chapter 2: Saying No
• Chapter 3: Saying Yes
• Chapter 10: Estimation
• Chapter 11: Pressure

EDIT

I don't like referring to other answers in my answers, as answers should be able to be understood by themselves. However, the top voted answer basically boils down to "The company is a pack of idiots. Run away from them." This gives the OP nothing to improve about themself, and nothing to change in the future. I see areas that the OP could improve, regardless of whether the company has done anything wrong or not, which we as answerers don't actually know, since we have only heard one side of the story.

ORIGINAL ANSWER

As far as I can see, you didn't communicate before you started the task that you firmly believed it could not be done in two hours.

Here's the sequence of events how I see it:

1. You were asked to complete a coding challenge
2. When you received the challenge, instead of communicating your concerns, you started coding
3. You rushed the challenge, cutting corners
4. You submitted a low-quality project that didn't work without a lot of fiddling
5. After receiving feedback, you started justifying your work

Here's how I imagine the company saw it:

1. The candidate accepted all the conditions of the challenge
2. The candidate submitted the project on time
3. The project didn't work
4. Our lead developer said the code was very poor quality
5. The candidate started making excuses for their work

Imagine you are in a work situation and your manager/team leader asks you to complete a task in an unreasonable amount of time. If you don't immediately communicate that you can't do that much work in that little time, then any failure is your fault for accepting the initial conditions. You are the expert, not them, and they rely on you to communicate with them.

I can't stress how important it is that both sides have a common understanding of the situation. You had an insurmountable gap of understanding because you missed your opportunity to address it. Next time you have a problem, communicate it straight away or the other party will think everything is fine! Not communicating important information is lying by omission, and any form of lying is unprofessional. How they react to the information is their responsibility, not yours.

I recommend reading The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in particular:

• Chapter 2: Saying No
• Chapter 3: Saying Yes
• Chapter 10: Estimation
• Chapter 11: Pressure

EDIT

If the company rejects your application because you asked for feedback and clarification before starting the task, they haven't filtered you out, you have filtered them out as a company you don't want to work for.