That is totally a non-trivial problem, which requires a lot more conception before it can be solved.

Most candidates don't realize that. And when I say they split by single space I mean split(' '). Not even split(/\s+/).

Does "don't" consist of one or two words? Should "www.google.com" be split into three parts? Etc.

Yes, asking those questions is definitely what you should be doing when tackling a problem like this.

If I got that feature request in a ticket, I'd send it back to conception.

If I got it, I'd work together with the product team to figure out what we want and what's best for the users.

If you asked me this question in an interview, I'd ask if you wanted a programmer, a requirements analysis, or a linguist and why you invite people for a job interview if you don't even know what role you are hiring for.

That would be useful too. Personality, attitude, and ability to work with others in a team are also factors we look at, so your answer would tell me to look elsewhere.

But to answer that question, I'm definitely not looking for someone who just executes on very clear requirements, that's a junior dev. It's what you do when faced with ambiguity that matters. I don't need the human chatGPT.

Also, I'm not looking for someone perfectly solving that problem, because it doesn't even have a single clear solution. It's the process of arriving to a solution that matters. What questions do you ask? Which edge cases did you consider and which ones did you miss? How do you iterate on your solution and debug issues you run into on the way? And so on