Pre employment testing?

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Since when is this a thing?
I can understand it if you are applying for a role with specific physical or medical parameters - eg. you must be able to lift a certain amount, or have no history of disorders like epilepsy if you are operating machinery, etc.
I even complied with a pre-employment medical assessment once which was to determine if you are in good physical health which with my physical configuration was ... interesting.
But since when is it a thing to make potential employees run a gauntlet of word puzzles, math questions, logic puzzles, psychiatric and personality quizzes? Timed to make sure you can't think about any of the questions in depth?
Is this what it takes to even be considered for a basic job these days?
Ick.
Anyone else taken one of these lately? It seemed to me to be a trap - whatever you did, it'd make you look sh***y.

Luckily my current job (over a decade and counting) did not require such a test however a job I applied to before did. Once I filled out the 'personality' test my informal offer was rescinded: guess I was too introverted. Good riddance as I would obviously have hated working for such an organization. What's more amazing is that this was a job that required working alone most of the day!!

^ Typical.
What's even stupider is it seemed completely irrelevant - what does whether or not I like to go to clubs or enjoy being the centre of attention got to do with my diligence and dedication to a potential job?
Trying to create some kind of "profile" based on such simplistic questions is pointless and impossible and a waste of time. And it will likely have nothing to do with a person's job performance. Reminded me amusingly of Dr Lecter from Silence of the Lambs commenting similarly on Starling's psych evaluation questionnaire - "you think you can dissect me with this blunt little tool?"
Plus I was told by military recruiters about ten years ago that part of what made me unsuitable was because psychiatric testing does not work on me.
What ever happened to just giving someone a go and seeing how they went? A temporary trial that could turn permanent if you were a good fit? What's with all these stupid hoops?

I usually don't even apply if they have a test like that. For one, it pisses me off. I'm really supposed to go through a process of multiple interviews, a background check, and a 45 minute+ computerized psych eval for a job that won't even pay me minimum wage after taxes?!
No.
For two, I usually don't pass the tests. Partly because I get upset at some point during it and start giving the most negative answers available. "Of course it's acceptable to engage in physical confrontations with my coworkers..."

I actually wish more jobs would have tests like this - but only if the abilities tested were somehow related to the job and didn't require irrelevant knowledge. And if it was actually possible to answer all the questions in time without guessing.

When you are not good with presenting yourself during a regular job interview, doing well on tests can make you look like a good candidate. The only times I gotten a "sure"/2nd interview were jobs involving some ability tests.

I gotten my first job that way. First interview was required by the job office I gotten the offer from so they had no choice but to met me but the 2nd interview depended on whatever or not I could fulfill the tasks of Word and Excel and presented some knowledge of accounting. I did and eventually they hired me.

Last time though I applied for a programming job and they gave me a math test (sounds related, right?) full of verbal math questions requiring detailed... practical knowledge of ACCOUNTING(how is it related?). I do have bachelors in accounting so I could deal with them somehow but there was still a bunch of questions I couldn't figure out because I lack practice in such tasks - I graduated college 6 years ago and had no contact with accounting since then.
Furthermore there was not enough time not only to count the answers (and we are talking about hundreds of thousands here, with data set in a table you needed to read based on informations in the question) but even READ all the questions in time. I was only able to answer 15 out of 40 questions.
They still invited me for the interview afterwards, where I were to show my programming skills. They told me the results will be in a week.
And then they hired someone else.

Another situation like this was to "quality tester" job. They tested attention to detail by seeing ós in a bunch of oooooooos and... the knowledge of how does a good screw looks like. They were showing you a bunch of pictures of screws and you were to click if you think its a good screw or a bad screw. There was just enough time to answer all the questions but they never said what qualities a good screw has so it took me 5 tries to pass that part because I had to use trial and error approach to figure it out. No, apparently a "good" screw isn't just a perfect, undamaged screw but also those with scratches here and there as long as they are not severe enough. How was I supposed to know that?
They still called me for the interview afterwards which was actually a contract signing meting. But I had to refuse because they finally told me that the environment I would be working in isn't sensory friendly (lots of noise).
I kept asking them in e-mail and chat rooms before all this, if the working place is loud but they avoided the answers!

So ... apparently, you need to do an application, a telephone interview, a formal interview, an in-office questionnaire, a math test, a psychometric test, a logic test, a word puzzle test, a spatial reasoning test, get asked invasive questions about your personal life, then a second interview with a manager and agree to six days a week for two years of half-pay ... to do door-knock sales.
PISS. OFF.

I don't know when it happened, but it's awful. I remember seeking work and having to go through all that. Sometimes (no idea how often), the companies aren't even actually looking to hire a new employee, they just want to figure out what "quality" of candidate they're capable of luring. I'm glad I'm gainfully employed, in part so I don't have to go through all that anymore. I still think it's ridiculous though, and I think a lot of employers are shooting themselves in the foot with this stuff.