As much as I agree that the process is bullshit, it is no different than studying for an exam, something we took for granted during school, just as a mean to an

As much as I agree that the process is bullshit, it is no different than studying for an exam, something we took for granted during school, just as a mean to an end (a degree), except that in this case there is arguably a much higher ratio of payoff/effort. There is no mystery involved, one of the more known books on the subject is "Cracking the Coding Interview", but really there is no mystery to crack. There is a ton of literature, tools, examples freely available on the Internet, all that is missing is time and effort to go through them and learn them as if it were for an exam. One of the main objection is "Why I should spend more time in doing something I already do full-time at my job, where I'm perfectly qualified?", but to me it's pointless: if you think getting hired by another company will improve your life significantly (or even marginally), it is something you should definitely put effort into. At the very least, this process (aside from those lucking out) proves that the candidate is able to understand a non-trivial problem (getting hired) and have the ability and put the effort necessary to solve it (going through the bullshit excercise and questions), as it was in your case.