I have worked with lots of hards deadlines. Currently, if I don’t submit payroll by the deadline, employees don’t get paid. When I was an event planner, the event date and start time was firm. When I worked in public relationships, I had a hard deadline for corporate press releases especially related to financials. I also used to schedule live TV interviews for news segments. One of my first jobs was with a magazine, the paper kind, I had to get the page layouts to the printer for our magazine to hit the newsstands on time.
It doesn’t matter WHY the deadlines exist.
They exist. You’re expected to meet them. Failing to meet them, even by 20 minutes, has consequences.
To be clear, the professor never said this; that interpretation came form a response. As noted earlier, it does not matter why the professor has the rule; s/he has the rule. Personally, although I would adhere to the deadline, I would have made it a sliding scale based upon how late the assignment is. But then, I’m not teaching the class.
Assumes facts not in evidence. The OP never offered up a reason.
In terms of deadlines, when I start my family, I’ll invite you over to my house so that you can explain to my child that there are no presents under the tree or no birthday cake because deadlines in the “real world” are not “hard and fast.” 
At my son’s school, 11:59pm is because it’s giving you until the last minute of the day to finish it. His online system locks at 12am, so if it’s not on time you can’t submit it without first talking to the professor and having an exception made.
Gotta tell you, when you start working they have deadlines too.
Yeah, I would love to tell my assistant principal that I was only 20 minutes late with my grades.
If the reason included a 911 call, it wouldn’t be a problem.
But I wouldn’t attempt it unless 911 were involved.
So many deadlines in the real world. Throw different time zones in the mix if you really want to have fun. Meet the deadlines, just because. No one want to hear excuses.
Right.
Adults do what the job requires. They do a good job, they make deadlines, they don’t make excuses.
And not for most of the reasons people cite as excuses. They do it right and they do it on time because real adults have pride in their work. It’s not about getting in trouble or getting penalized, it’s because that’s what the job requires.
I’d expect a zero. I work at a selective university. Professors consider the syllabus their contract with the students. They can’t hold some to it but not others unless there are extenuating circumstances. If they accept late assignments with no point deduction they’ve essentially given a time advantage to one student that the others don’t have, so they generally only approve extensions if there’s a very good reason. Not believing that the professor was serious about the deadline isn’t a good reason.
Not a lecture, just a learning experience and one of the great things about college. You’re just starting out. You will, most likely, find that college is vastly different than HS in many ways. Independence and accountability are among the most dramatic. You get to determine your outcome and experience. Pick your classes, go to the classes or don’t, do the work or don’t, party every night or don’t. It’s all about choices, discipline, priorities. But you have to live with the outcome. No excuses. Typically, there are no “do overs”. Some profs may grant opportunities for extra credit. Most won’t.
The real world, at least in business, also has no excuses. Learn what makes you tick and it will serve you well throughout your life.
@EastCoastKid123 - what did the professor do?