"Take 10 minutes to write out code for this simple, abstract, poorly defined problem. Okay, now I'm going to ding you because you didn't write it using the same mindset you'd use when writing a large application tailored towards a specific domain and given a detailed set of constraints."

Maybe we should call this sort of cargo-cultism Schroedinger interviews. If you make your code simple and easily readable in order to solve the problem in the most intelligible way, you get penalized for not making your solution scalable/easily adaptable to "business requirement changes". If you structure your code so that it can easily be extended or modified you get penalized for YAGNI and premature optimization. Of course, exactly what the interviewer is looking for is never actually specified as part of the problem statement, because it exists in a state of quantum superposition until right before the interviewer decides whether or not he or she likes your physical appearance/sense of humor/"cultural fit".