To me, the rules given to you are pure gatekeeping. The fact that even after they had given successively more restrictive rules for what should be a trivial pro

To me, the rules given to you are pure gatekeeping. The fact that even after they had given successively more restrictive rules for what should be a trivial program they then verbally restricted you further confirms this. I would question whether this was actually an interview for a real job or not but in any case it's not you it's them.