When you say 9 out of 900 met the standard, where did the 900 number come from? Was that how many online applications they received or was that how many people made it to stage one?
I can almost be sure if it was 900 online applications then at least half would not have had the minimum requirements. Still out of 450 applicants I doubt that only 9 people met the standard. I would suspect that as the stages progressed that they could only take a certain number of people forward. You know 300 for stage one then 100 for stage 2 etc. That means that the process is competitive. It doesn't matter what you got, if you weren't in the top whatever for that stage you lost out.
When CX for example were hiring low timers, if you passed the test and interview stage one and two you went on a waiting list. Sometimes all would progress and other times none. That is a truly non competitive process. I fear this one isn't