Exactly. I have interviewed many candidates and later fired several too. Some people who look good on paper are so desperate that they lie about everything! In fact, I had to fire the first person I ever hired, because he claimed to be expert at X and Y (lies and lies), but weak at Z (truth). So ok, didn't seem like a huge problem until I realized that he didn't know how to program... at all. In any language. My mistake was that I didn't test ACTUAL coding skills at all, because why would anyone lie about it? LOL!
FizzBuzz style questions are really important (eg. create an array with 4 numbers: 1, 2, 3 and 4 and output the values. Oh a "Java and Python 'expert'?". Please in both languages then!). Although I agree that home tasks and trick-algorithm questions are useless.
Although I agree that home tasks and trick-algorithm questions are useless.
I don't think home tasks are useless, but they have to used properly. A home task geared to 1-2 hours seems reasonable for an exercise between the first and second interview. Some may say they'll just look up the answer (it's encouraged!), and that's why during the second interview the employer should discuss their answer. If the candidate can explain why they made particular decisions on the take home piece and have an intelligent discussion about the trade offs they took then who cares if they looked up the answer. In fact, the home test is probably closer to real programming since I don't know anyone who codes without Google nearby.
So, my preferred method is to use FizzBuzz as a first cut on the first interview and then give a take home quiz that should take the candidate 1-2 hours or less if they are good.
FizzBuzz style questions are really important (eg. create an array with 4 numbers: 1, 2, 3 and 4 and output the values. Oh a "Java and Python 'expert'?". Please in both languages then!). Although I agree that home tasks and trick-algorithm questions are useless.