But, software engineering interviews are pretty rough. It is a uniquely miserable experience. Since I'm a temp worker I have a lot of them. They don't get easier.
I don't know of anyone who likes high pressure time crunch interrogations except maybe the ones getting to do the interrogating part.
A take home test isn't so bad. But, ya if you asked me today if I'd be willing to do one like that again I'd say probably not unless I was desperate. The reality is, it is a lot of effort to put in for it to all come crashing down with a rejection anyway. When you're applying at dozens of companies if they're all requiring that level of time and mental commitment from you, you can't swing it really and it's stressful. Interviewing and being under financial pressure at the same time is already a stressful position to be in, let alone being mentally and emotionally flogged for it.
All the jobs I was ever hired onto the hiring manager just had a good gut feeling about me and the tests never mattered. And, they were happy with my work.
The ones that never hire me usually rely on all the employees to vote on you, if even one says no you're out. Or, the ones that are very fixated on your GPA or whether you can invert a binary tree on the whiteboard while they yell at you "Wrong!" along the way.