As a contrary opinion, that its really not so bad, I'm old enough to remember job interviews where they use the interview as an excuse to take the whole team out to their favorite expensive restaurant for lunch, and I'm stressed and frankly not going to enjoy it because its an interview full of people I don't know well, whereas a day or two's pay at $25/hr works out very well to "date night with my wife at our favorite steakhouse". For people who don't like steakhouses, or wives, they can find a similar enough way to entertain themselves in compensation for time spent.
It feels like a relatively tasteful way to say "thanks for your time, now go out and have a nice evening to celebrate its all over".
I'm not sure how much time it takes, just that they said it's a month long contract.
But let's assume it's 30 hours total. I often turn down contract work because I'm booked full, so I could have worked those 30 hours at $100 per hour. This "interview" will cost me $2250--in addition to the time spend doing the actual asynchronous interviews.
I'm not willing to spend 2 grand for the chance at a job with this company. I might be willing to lose $500 or so in lost income to spend half a day interviewing.
Do companies really want to limit their potential applicant pools like this?
It feels like a relatively tasteful way to say "thanks for your time, now go out and have a nice evening to celebrate its all over".