Prioritize a 6-hour take-home effectively

You are given a take-home similar to the above with a suggested 6-hour limit but a scope that could take much longer. Describe, concretely, how you would: (a) scope and time-box to 6 hours with a work plan (e.g., 1.5h data audit/EDA, 2h feature engineering and baseline heuristic, 1.5h modeling/evaluation, 1h report); (b) decide what to cut vs. keep (e.g., heuristic baseline instead of full model, limit features, sample data); (c) proactively communicate trade-offs and risks to the recruiter/hiring team before submitting; (d) produce a crisp report and appendix that demonstrates judgment despite limited time; and (e) reflect on lessons learned if rejected and how you’d iterate for the next take-home.