> I don't think anyone would consider it a failing of the interview process if they were looking for an accountant and their hiring process weeded out the peopl

> I don't think anyone would consider it a failing of the interview process if they were looking for an accountant and their hiring process weeded out the people who couldn't actually do accounting. Not to knock the accountants, but I think programming involves a lot more creativity and open-ended thinking, and I'm not at all convinced that a focus on "hoop"-like testing brings out those aspects of a potential candidate. (As noted in my other replies, I didn't mean to imply that programming skills are not important for a programmer to have.)