What seems objectionable to me, is that in order for Vlad to find people that are "cool" he's wasting everyone else's time.
This isn't exactly the same as if I give people a test on their ability. It's different. In here you pass if you did something that scores well in a metric that you're not told about. It's not very different than if I gave you a take home assignment which is just literally "code something - you have to be good at ambiguity!" Joking, you just have to guess the thing I had in mind. It's very inconsiderate to people, and doesn't tell me anything good about this Vlad person.
This isn't exactly the same as if I give people a test on their ability. It's different. In here you pass if you did something that scores well in a metric that you're not told about. It's not very different than if I gave you a take home assignment which is just literally "code something - you have to be good at ambiguity!" Joking, you just have to guess the thing I had in mind. It's very inconsiderate to people, and doesn't tell me anything good about this Vlad person.