My first real job interview in 1999 worked exactly like this. A pool of candidates came in and were given the same 2 day coding assignment. We were paid for our time and worked on site. It was a great experience, but I tend to like working on interesting problems (which I guess is a valuable trait in itself).
It especially made sense at this company because they were using an obscure coding platform and needed to train everybody from scratch. So you were actually learning the language a bit while performing the test. Mentors went around and asked you your thought process as you worked an gave some helpful nudges.
I did get the job and to this day it was the best office environment of my life. I wish all tech companies were as well run as that one.
I'd happily do that type of interview as two days of money coming in is still great in its own right when you're unemployed.
Plus it seems like an utterly fair way of evaluating candidates that I don't really feel like trick questions, riddles, and high pressure whiteboard challenges accomplish.
One question/concern I have is: How much paperwork is involved in paying someone for just two days? For example, do you now need to file tax stuff (both state and federal), and how do you physically pay them (e.g. set up bank transfers, cash, etc)?
In an ideal world you'd just have people in for two days and hand them a small wad of cash at the end. But with the laws on the books and complexity of employment in general, something tells me the overhead of such a thing would be problematic.
I think the law is that if it's a contract job and you get paid under something like $500 you don't even need a W2 form (or whichever one it is for that). That might vary state-by-state.
It especially made sense at this company because they were using an obscure coding platform and needed to train everybody from scratch. So you were actually learning the language a bit while performing the test. Mentors went around and asked you your thought process as you worked an gave some helpful nudges.
I did get the job and to this day it was the best office environment of my life. I wish all tech companies were as well run as that one.