>>The good interviewers, IMO, gave me a "take-home" problem of building some mini front-end app that hit an API, and the really fun one involved reverse engineering an unpublished API - that's how I got my current job.
I agree with you, but whenever this subject comes up, a lot of folks here on HN complain that they have full-time jobs and families and don't have time for "take-home" questions.
I understand that point, but I just personally hate the stress and the irrelevance of the "over-the-shoulder" algorithm problems that a recent CS grad would be almost more suited to answering. If I'm really interested in working for a company, I have no issue spending a couple hours building a little app to prove my chops.
I agree with you, but whenever this subject comes up, a lot of folks here on HN complain that they have full-time jobs and families and don't have time for "take-home" questions.