Requesting a word or idiom for "impressive failure."

Solution 1:

I've seen media use the term spectacular failure for something that really failed:

http://www.wired.com/1999/12/a-century-of-spectacular-failure/ https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/274191 http://www.fastcompany.com/3026253/dialed/5-famous-entrepreneurs-who-learned-from-their-first-spectacular-failures http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peggy-nash/ndp-needs-leader-who-can-inspire_b_9619998.html

Solution 2:

to crash and burn

1. Lit. [for a plane or car] to crash and burst into flames. The small plane crashed and burned just after it took off.
2. Fig. to fail spectacularly. Poor Chuck really crashed and burned when he made his presentation at the sales meeting.

— McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Solution 3:

The current neologism is omnishambles.

It describes a failure situation which has absolutely no redeeming features.

Originally used in a BBC political drama "The Thick Of It", it has been used in Parliament to describe Government policy.

The Oxford English Dictionary gave it the title "Word of the Year" in 2012.

Solution 4:

If you want to be formal I suggest "comprehensive failure" (which I think suggests that the failure covers every aspect of the task at hand and thus meets the "hard to achieve" criterion).