Well, I'd sound like a pessimist but in my experience most of the time specific assignments have turned out nightmarish.
Having worked at a unicorn, I've seen folks take advantage of the gullibility of folks by giving assignments specific to problems they are working on, only as a way to get ideas on the table and implement them.
So it's better to get clarification and take a calculated bet, in the current market this has been more rampant given the desperation of folks trying to score a job. I've had instances personally where my entire work product was taken and developed into a whole new line of ops