Right. Some companies use it as a screen, we used it to inform the interview.
Two of the last three companies I interviewed at had at least 4 hours of in-person interviews. One of those (for a regular developer position, around 7 years ago) had multiple whiteboard sessions with different people. The problems were trivial to solve if you had access to google or had memorized basic data structures and related algorithms. Instead of taking half an hour or an hour talking about the code I'd written to solve a problem representative of what the actual job entailed, we spent 4x as much time (during business hours) talking about things freshmen learn in CS programs (I'm assuming here, I didn't get a CS degree).
Even if the total amount of time is the same, or even greater, I still prefer the take-home assignment because I can do it on my own time, rather than taking off of work, and - if done correctly - makes for a much interview.
As a candidate, you learn far more about the people you're going to be working with than in a whiteboard session as well.
Two of the last three companies I interviewed at had at least 4 hours of in-person interviews. One of those (for a regular developer position, around 7 years ago) had multiple whiteboard sessions with different people. The problems were trivial to solve if you had access to google or had memorized basic data structures and related algorithms. Instead of taking half an hour or an hour talking about the code I'd written to solve a problem representative of what the actual job entailed, we spent 4x as much time (during business hours) talking about things freshmen learn in CS programs (I'm assuming here, I didn't get a CS degree).
Even if the total amount of time is the same, or even greater, I still prefer the take-home assignment because I can do it on my own time, rather than taking off of work, and - if done correctly - makes for a much interview.
As a candidate, you learn far more about the people you're going to be working with than in a whiteboard session as well.