Comment by CM30

I think the timer is probably something that doesn't get enough attention here. Lots of people say about how these select for people with lots of free time, and that's very true, but they also seem to be biased towards people that don't tend to freak out in stressful situations/do well with a clock rapidly ticking down behind them.

Which... doesn't necessarily correlate to someone being good at programming or web development or what not. Or whether they'll be good at the job in general, given that most engineering roles don't have someone screaming "get this done in under an hour or else!" with no time to think things through properly.

At the same time though, I can also see why they do that, since otherwise it comes down to "whoever's got the most free time and willingness to grind away at the problem", turning an hour long exercise into a 3 day one in the process.