[chuckp]

Most companies will put a litany of skill sets on the requirements list, however what they are really looking for is what crusso pointed out, someone with critical thinking skills.

Be it a customer service rep, or a software engineer, when the employer says "Do X" if you don't know how to do it, figure it out. So many people will just sit there and stare into their screen or at a wall. That is the type of person these tests are designed to weed out.

As others pointed out, if you are not willing to put in the effort and jump through the hoops, why bother, either you feel your too good for the job and won't apply yourself, or you lack the basic understanding of problem solving and troubleshooting.

[randomdata]

Maybe in theory, but I read a couple of posts on HN in just the last few days of people complaining that potential hires they were interviewing couldn't even rhyme off things like basic data structures.

If critical thinking was the skill being sought, rote memorization seems like it shouldn't have any emphasis at all. You can always look up data structures, or whatever, but that is often not good enough.