Yeah, you could argue that this means these people aren't that serious about us, and we should be looking for people who are dying to work for our company specifically. Those people will surely spend hours preparing specifically for our interview, and triple-check they have followed all of our preparation instructions.

The reality is that for the past few years at least in SF, hiring engineers has just gotten more and more competitive. Most people who pass our interview will have multiple other offers, often some from companies with a bigger name brand than our own. At least in my opinion, most companies in this environment can't afford to have such strict purity tests. It's supply and demand.

This balance may be changing now given the current recession, it seems even in tech things have cooled off a bit the past few months.