What companies have you worked for that have no real-time problem solving or programming in the hiring process? Since you want people to not waste time, do their hiring processes also not include any take-home problems?
Every single one. I have never worked for a company that treated an interview like the SATs.
Maybe I was lucky earlier in my career but now that I have been in the industry long enough and have a big enough collection of work I can reference I am comfortable avoiding companies that basically make the assumption that every candidate is either incompetent or lying about their experience. I mean if you can't sit down with me and engage in a real dialog that establishes I know what I say I know that's on you, not me.
I think take home tasks are fine so long as they don't require more than a few hours and are clearly relevant to the job. If you can't come up with a task that mirrors the type of thing I'm going to be doing on a daily basis and ask me to do something inane it tells me you're lazy or not focused on what's important.
