In real life, do most pilots equipped with autopilots use them to fly
holds (i.e., by using the HDG function of the autopilot, and possibly
altitude holds or autothrottle if available), or do they fly the plane
by hand through the holds?

When you are tested on your ability to fly holds, do you have to fly
them by hand, or can you use the autopilot as above?

Note that I'm not talking about fully automated systems that will fly
the entire hold pattern automatically, I'm talking about just using
heading and altitude controls in the autopilot to simplify the task of
turning and rolling out, turning and rolling out, over and over.

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