This is bizarre to me. Yeah, I've worked on teams with people who couldn't ship code, and they got fired. But I'm looking for work now. Let me tell you what

This is bizarre to me. Yeah, I've worked on teams with people who couldn't ship code, and they got fired. But I'm looking for work now. Let me tell you what it's like. There are companies who provide automated coding tests that require you to pull out bizarre algorithms that I haven't needed in 15+ years of shipping code and creating MM's of value for employers. After weeks of searching, I'm finally at a second-stage interview with a company where they intend to hand me a spec, put me in a room, and see if I can come out a few hours later with a functioning prototype. And it's a relief; that's a sane test. Can I produce or not?