So they'll have you do one before you even come onsite. Then if you pass, they'll run you through the same whiteboard loop we all know and love. Even if your take-home performance was fantastic, they'll still reject you if your onsite performance was anything short of.

In practice, I take jobs that don't require demonstrating anything technical in the interview.

But a take-home test would only add information, not take anything away. So there is no reason in principle someone couldn't use it to hire.

A candidate like that will have 10+ companies trying to recruit them. Out of these, 9 will require 1-2 hours of remote screens at most for an onsite. The 10th will require a 5-10 hour take-home project for the same onsite.

Which one will the strong candidate skip?