I agree that TopTal sucks. I thought they had some kind of system or process of their own for evaluating the skill level of programmers, but relying on one automated test with no human oversight is pretty stupid. However I see no problem regarding Codility. There are multiple things you would want to look for in a programmer. The things you mentioned, such as OOP practices, DB architecture and similar technical abilities are usually evaluated thoroughly in the technical interview. I believe TestDome may have some more technical questions than Codility, but then again both platforms have lots of test questions so they may have both kinds. But for some programming positions, evaluating the ability to think algorithmically and figure out the "trick" can be crucial. This can be necessary in AI programming for example. The problem here is not the tests themselves, but the way they are administered, and to whom. A test and it's questions may be useful for some candidates applying to certain positions but may be useless in other contexts. Another important factor is to not rely solely on the automatically evaluated results of these tests, but to have an actual developer look at the code. Not to mention that these tests are not meant to be the sole proof of someone's skill, but are generally intended to be one part of the screening process, where the technical interview usually follows.