And if you want to be a firefighter, you have to pass fitness tests and climb ladders and stuff. If you want to be an actor or musician, you have to audition. T

And if you want to be a firefighter, you have to pass fitness tests and climb ladders and stuff. If you want to be an actor or musician, you have to audition. The employer wants to know what you know. I guess maybe some people think of these these tests as pass/fail where if you forget a semicolon you "failed" the whiteboard interview. Any job where you don't have a degree or professional certification guaranteeing a bare minimum of knowledge will ask you to demonstrate your abilities and what you know. The fact that you don't do that in some professions is more of an indication of how hard it is to test without a comprehensive knowledge-based examination. Software development is not unique. If you say you're qualified for the job, you have to demonstrate it somehow.