[doorbumper]

I think there's two different complaints at play in this thread. Surely you're not suggesting that candidates be exempt from proving themselves. The number of developers who become incompetent over time is high. I think the question is whether they should prove themselves through algorithmic questions. I'll never higher anyone just because they have credentials. A Computer Science degree is a credential, yet so many with that credential cannot write the simplest of programs.

[sanderjd]

It's probably too late to come back to this thread, but no, I'm not talking about the narrower but more common complaint about algorithmic questions. I think the entire approach of constant proving is misguided. There are lots of other ways to do this with lots of prior art in other industries. I believe we have landed on a poor but self-perpetuating solution. What we do to hire is akin to what they do in the performing arts, but our work is entirely dissimilar.

Do mechanical engineers draw up a design for a valve or something at every job they apply for?