The solution to this is simple - any engineer applying for a job should simply say "no" and this practice will end. The real problem is that engineers in general do not know how to say "no", or they do not know how to negotiate. The role of college education is to weed out those who are not capable, so if you already have a degree of a reasonably reputable (not necessarily ivy league) college or university these type of interviews are completely unnecessary. Also, in the US the cost of firing someone is extremely low compared to europe so these type of interviews make no sense at all. In europe you would need to pay someone months of severance pay and what not, in the US you can simply tell them they are fired and that's it. The goal of these interviews is really to find something that can be used to negotiate your salary down, so don't be a sucker and don't fall for it.