I can tell you from experience ppl with college degrees go through the exact preparation process, aren't well off because they took an algorithm course 2 decades ago.
I agree. But I think there is a skillset to taking tests that can become highly developed in a college environment (where 3/4 finals exams are taken quarterly). You're more likely to get a fully grounded education, such as database and operating systems semantics (compared to the self-taught web developer who began and exists at a much higher abstraction level). It's my understanding sometimes these questions are sometimes thrown in and could be crucial to a candidates success.
