[tester34]

I don't agree with this.

>The person who used common user-space unix/linux tools didn't already have his mind locked into "writing a program to accomplish the interviewer's objectives"

It's partly your fail as a interviewer that candidate has to guess what you expect from him.

What if instead of using bash s/he had used popular GUI tool like Excel(let's assume that it performs the job quickly too), then would it be OK too?