Don't give 20 hours of your life to a programming excercise for a job application, unless they are compensating you.

If your new employer sets your start date 7 weeks in the future, keep interviewing. You don't have a job yet.

I recently signed an offer letter with a firm that required a drug and background screen and a start date 2 weeks out. So knowing i didn't actually have a job yet, I kept interviewing, received two more job offers, and took the best one. i called the first company the friday before my monday start and told them i wasn't coming in.