[stanleydrew]

Yeah this. There's often a presumption like "I'm a very talented software engineer and everyone should want to hire me and thus companies shouldn't design a hiring process that I personally find annoying."

Hiring is a matching process. If a company with an annoying hiring process is a bad match for you, that's fine.

[pooper]

As long as the whole process is transparent and fully disclosed upfront.

Remember, the company has more information than the applicant.

[mariosisters]

In what sense does the company have more information? They have more information about the details of the job, sure, but the applicant has more details about themselves. Which is “more valuable” depends on the market I guess. But why do you say one party has strictly more information?

(This question is asked in good faith).