The position I interviewed for was a 10 month contract through a staffing agency. In order to get an in-person interview I answered a 4 question written test that was emailed to me. In my opinion, the questions were not very well thought out and did not reflect well on the hiring process I was about to enter. At least one of the questions was actually relevant to the position for which I was interviewing. Though it was rather trivial.
The in-person interview was three 45 minute sessions, each of which consisted entirely of solving a programming problem on the whiteboard. The questions were not relevant to the task I would be performing if hired. They were just generic algorithms off of somebody's Comp Sci 101 test.
Unfortunately I suck at the "solve an irrelevant problem in a prison cell interrogation environment" so I did not get a call back. Fortunately this weakness hasn't prevented me from having an extremely successful career. Just not at any of the companies that utilize this lazy man's approach to interviewing.
