If you are outside any big tech hub, most jobs and candidates will be filled by recruiters or normal job posts. I've been developing professionally for about 15 years, changed jobs a lot of times, and never was through a referral/network. Most of the people I know are the same. And yes, also having done interviews and sorted through thousands of resumes, there is so much out of touch folks out there that I wouldn't hire anyone nowadays without at least 1-2 small tests to validate their knowledge.
Yes. Living in the midwest, I've done software development for nearly 30 years. I've had more than half a dozen employers and I have never been given any kind of "technical test" in an interview, such as writing code on the spot, diagramming an algorithm, or solving a puzzle. I don't know where this happens, but it's not everywhere.
I saw it in london once. I failed the test so badly that the interviewer refused to believe that I had written the demo project which got me a first interview. He said it was one of the best he had ever seen. But then said I couldn't have written it because I was failing the interview so badly. People who dont get that nervous just dont understand how debilitating being really nervous is. Also the white board code challenge was a total waste of time.
