[richardknop]

Presentation sounds really vague to me, it could mean anything from 1-2 hours of prep or a day or two of intense preparation to make a good presentation.

Also number 1 (writing simple API matching a spec) - this doesn't require prep if it's using language that I am using currently / have been using in my daily job for a long time.

But I have found often been required to write code in languages that are on my CV but I haven't used them in 5+ years.

Also talking about past failures, career history. I can barely remember in detail 2-3 years so I would need to spend a little time to just be prepared about a random very specific question about a project I worked on 5 years ago that might come up during interview because it would silly if I didn't remember (which I wouldn't if you ask me randomly about something I did 5 years ago).

Small things like these add up, obviously the more you want to get a certain job the more time you would spend preparing, it's only natural. If you are only looking around you might just wing it since you don't care much.

I am not criticising your system, it seems pretty sensible actually btw.