I appreciate your even-handed perspective here. I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. Mostly I disagree with your conclusion.
The criticisms you mention about take-home tests apply equally to practicing Leetcode-style questions. It will filter out a ton of people who don’t have time or aren’t willing to spend it. In that sense it’s not better (and it’s probably why I see a lot more take-home coding tests lately).
But really neither of these is ok. They’re both ageist and sexist and lots of other things (older people and women disproportionately carry the burden of caring for others and many won’t have the time or energy to prep for Leetcode problems). Even if I’m willing to jump through those hoops, I don’t want to work at a place with a strongly ageist and sexist filter.
Lots of other careers don’t ask people to prove their skills before they get hired. They accept that some resume fraud will happen and deal with it. Bad hires are really bad and destructive, it’s true. But let’s not adopt solutions that are worse than the problem. Discrimination is not an ok price to pay. I’ve been working in this industry for almost 25 years now, and we did ok before Leetcode-style interviews. We can do it again.
The criticisms you mention about take-home tests apply equally to practicing Leetcode-style questions. It will filter out a ton of people who don’t have time or aren’t willing to spend it. In that sense it’s not better (and it’s probably why I see a lot more take-home coding tests lately).
But really neither of these is ok. They’re both ageist and sexist and lots of other things (older people and women disproportionately carry the burden of caring for others and many won’t have the time or energy to prep for Leetcode problems). Even if I’m willing to jump through those hoops, I don’t want to work at a place with a strongly ageist and sexist filter.
Lots of other careers don’t ask people to prove their skills before they get hired. They accept that some resume fraud will happen and deal with it. Bad hires are really bad and destructive, it’s true. But let’s not adopt solutions that are worse than the problem. Discrimination is not an ok price to pay. I’ve been working in this industry for almost 25 years now, and we did ok before Leetcode-style interviews. We can do it again.