In fact, I'm not sure I've ever spoken to anyone from HR during a hiring process. Well, except for outside recruiters, but I prefer to keep even that to a minimum (some do insist they want to meet in person, unfortunately). Usually, the first interview is with a manager sufficiently knowledgeable about the technical issues, sometimes accompanied by a developer.

Often they hire based on just that. If they don't, step two is usually some sort of assessment, and the assessments I've done tend to be pretty good.

It is possible that I've forgotten a ton of interviews with crappy companies that I didn't end up working for. The interviews I remember are the ones that worked.