The spray and pray approach is the default even for great coders unless they have contacts that will get them a job with almost no interview in which case none

The spray and pray approach is the default even for great coders unless they have contacts that will get them a job with almost no interview in which case none of this applies. As far as coding tests go, they should only be administered to finalist candidates after the initial interviews. So no, there shouldn't be automated scoring. That's an indicator that the test is flawed. The candidate should be able to walk through the code and explain why they did what they did. They should be fairly confident that if they do well on the test and subsequent walkthrough, they are getting the job. Companies that administer the test first either have a ton of qualified applicants competing for the same job or are doing something wrong.