[gcheong]

As a candidate I can say I've faced the gamut of everything from online automated assessments to phone interviews that seemed little more than running through a list of "how do you do X" to high pressure white-boarding sessions involving solving algorithmic/architecture problems on the fly but the kind of assessment that seemed most reasonable to me above everything else was one where I had a small take-home coding challenge with a discussion of the submitted solution afterward, the latter part being key and here is why:

1. You can see how well I explain my solution, how I approached it, and my reasoning for any trade-offs or choices I made and how well I respond to any questioning or criticisms of my solutions.

2. It shows respect for my time, because there is always more that goes into doing these things than just the code that comes out of it, and gives me an idea what it would be like working for your company and/or the people I would be working with.