However, I've also been a few hours into a homework assignment thinking that I could probably go down some rabbit-hole to try to perfect something that I may have been struggling with, and sometimes can't determine the appropriate stopping point.
The "probationary employment" would be more like, I don't know, a gift card, or something, vs. something formal.
That way, if I totally bombed out in some assessment, no big deal, here's something for taking the time to apply, and maybe I could use the card to buy a book.
Now, I get that companies aren't giving gift cards away to all of their interviewees, so this type of thing would only come after at least the first round of interviews, etc.
More often than not, a non-interested company will often not even tell why they didn't pass the assessment, and it generally feels like a waste of time.