[quietbritishjim]

> They'll probably have no problem spending a weekend hacking on something they're passionate about.

I would much rather a coding quiz than be asked to do something in my own time. It is already enough of an imposition on my time to go to the actual interview, without there being homework too. Being expected to have already done side projects is even worse; it effectively punishes me for spending too much of my attention on my employer.

Asking senior devs to write simple code in an interview is, I would say, distasteful but necessary. Some "senior" devs don't seem to be able to code at all. (That's why the fizz buzz challenge was created; it was never aimed at junior devs.) Of course more advanced challenges might end in a trick that you might not notice in an interview, or you might even make silly mistakes. But that's all OK so long as there is sufficient understanding of that by the interviewer, and so long as (this is really key) there is enough discussion about your thought process.

Edit: I just re-read your post and realised you're just asking for the option of showing off a side project, rather than it being compulsory. That's definitely not so bad but it still seems a bit unfair on those of us that don't have time for it.

[devNC]

I rather spend 4 hours doing a project where I can demonstrate my value (architecture, clean code, design patterns, etc) than spending the same 4 hours solving questions on a whiteboard.

Hell, most of the value I bring as a senior is well outside the realm of coding.

[flukus]

I'd maybe do one project like this for a top tier company, but most companies that do this are limiting themselves to the already unemployed who have the time, if you want to pull people from other companies you need to minimize their time investment. Remember it's not just a 4 hour project, it's 4 hours * the number of companies applied to. I'd also argue that you can't show off things like architecture and design patterns in such a short project, all you can show is that you're over engineering.

I've also been burned before, getting dinged for "not practicing TDD because the tests and fixes are in the same commit", there can be just as much arbitrary BS as a simple short code test.