Now that I'm older I refuse. Why? Because I work full-time, I have a family that I either care for, cook for, or put to bed. And when I'm not doing either of the above, I try to work-out for personal health and sanity reasons.
The take-home test only works in the "app does everything for you and you have no family" that defines living in SF.
And of course I get lot's of offers to take part in a multi level recruitment process, some of them last for about 2 months, with multiple meetings, and some take home tasks (often with requirements to spend a couple days on each).
And I simply don't have time for such recruitment style.
About a year ago, I interviewed with a couple of companies. One particular interview I thought went very well. They never got back to me so I kept doing interviews and eventually landed a job that I love.
About a month later that company finally got back to me and wanted to set up a final/offer discussion.
I told them that because they took so long, I wasn't interested.
I'm not going to wait around and hope you get back to me, my time is more valuable than that.
When I was searching for a job earlier this year that bit one company. They apparently really liked me but didn’t call back until weeks later by which time I had already found something.