Did you pay them for the “test”? There is a lot of discussion on various hiring blogs about paying people a basic minimum rate to “jump through your hoops”.

If someone does the exercise and doesn’t get an interview, please, for the love of ${DIETY} give them real feedback. I have had three such “take home” exercises now, one for a programming position, one for a writing position, and one for a video transcribing position. In all three cases, the only feedback received was “Thanks for applying, You’re not a fit.”

If a candidate has put in the energy to do the exercise, s/he deserves more of a debrief than “You’re not a fit”.