It's a question that can be done in any language and isn't especially difficult in a shell or scripting language. Every attempt I'd seen (except that one) in Java or C++ was a failure given the time limitation.

It is more of a test of "can you pick the right tool for the job, given limited time and resources?" In this case, a machine gun was chosen to squash an ant. A risky move, but if you can do it, then great.

It is a dumb benchmark, like being able to answer trivia questions without Wikipedia or google.