4 hours is a lot of time out of someone's day, and a near-dealbreaker for anyone gainfully employed and having some semblance of a life. Do you not realize this

4 hours is a lot of time out of someone's day, and a near-dealbreaker for anyone gainfully employed and having some semblance of a life. Do you not realize this? Meanwhile, it really doesn't take long to find out if someone is "worth talking to." Ask them to provide a code sample, and talk to them about for 10 minutes or so. Or if you must use a coding exercise, really, just keep it short and sweet. A good coder can show you a lot about their sensibilities in their solution to even just a slightly non-standard sorting problem.