If that were true, the best paying companies would fill up with charlatans with mediocre engineering skill but who interview well. But at places that think a lot about their interview processes, we don't really see that happening. Most of the engineers I've met who work at Google and Facebook are very capable.

(That said, I've certainly worked with entire teams of atrocious engineers at consulting companies and banks and places like that, who are paid well in excess of what they're worth.)

And yes, there's also plenty of blog posts from people with solid engineering skills who don't interview well. I've interviewed a few people like that, and I've fought tooth and nail for them. But angry homebrew developers on twitter don't tell you much about the hiring process for the average engineer. And in reality most people who can program effectively at work can also program well enough during a job interview. I'm genuinely sorry if you're not one of those people, but until someone comes up with a better assessment process, we use what we've got. I'm all ears if you have ideas for fairer processes.