We were open and honest about it being too much. The pattern that emerged is that it allowed us to see the candidates' strengths. Some didn't tackle the backend part: that was not their forte (and we hired them and sent them off on a course).
Also, in any IT job I've worked there's generally more business requirements/wishes/etc than can be finished. That's a fact of life. It helps to have team players that have are independent and give some push back where needed, as well as realistic deadlines. There were some that handled the deadline badly, that didn't help their case.
(but apparently, many believe giving someone a task to do is not done)
I guess what I'm saying is the expected reaction to this in the work place would be to trim the requirements and set expectations before you ever start work. If that's part of the test, cool, but it seems like that wouldn't be something a candidate would assume heh.
