Not all CS degrees are created equal I'm afraid.
I’ve interviewed many people with 4 year CS degrees who can’t really code. I’m not sure how this happens, but it definitely does. I disagree that having a CS degree should excuse candidates from coding interviews.
If it's not enough for an employer, it's because that employer devalues what's taught in most CS programs. Granted, there's a significant mismatch between CS degree work and real world work, but that's true in lots of engineering. Ask any engineer in whatever subfield how much time they spend solving differential equations. I mean, great that I learned how to balance a binary tree and write a heapsort in my DS&A class, but have I ever needed to do that at work? Other than to pass some stupid coding interview?
They even do this crap to people with CS degrees. If a 4 year CS degree isn't enough, then people who do this have no idea what they are doing.
I started in this field in 1997. The interviews were more old fashioned, a few tech questions, see if you were an oddball, then they'd get back to you. If you didn't work out, they would just fire you. Pretty simple.