realized halfway through a take-home that I was solving the wrong problem and had to decide whether to start over with six hours left

Halfway through a take-home I realized I'd been solving a slightly different problem than what was actually asked. Six hours left and had to decide between patching what I had or starting clean. Went with a partial rewrite and explained the mix-up in the README. Never heard back either way, still wondering if that was the wrong call.