Yes. In my case, probably demographics (most likely age). In this case, the employer may be motivated to go through a certain number of steps for the purposes

Yes. In my case, probably demographics (most likely age). In this case, the employer may be motivated to go through a certain number of steps for the purposes of metrics, even though they have no intention of hiring you. As to how I deal with it, I just drop them and move on. I enjoy short coding exercises, so don't really resent those. Larger projects I wouldn't do in any case. It might be partly due to automation. It's far easier these days for employers to take the first few steps with hundreds of candidates, with little cost to themselves. I've been somewhat seriously thinking of charging prospective employers for interviews. :-)