You're Not Interviewing for the Job. You're Auditioning for the Job Title

I assume the alternative is that you give some standardized "civil service" exam.

Honestly if it’s an exam you only take once or once every decade it’s an improvement over the current system.

I can't speak to developer exams so much but companies are often looking for specific people who aren't well categorized by standardized exams.

They’re looking for both. I’m just saying compress the Leetcode rigmarole to a one-time certification exam and then save the interview for the specific people questions. Like how other engineering disciplines do it.

The one time I took a bunch of tests was out of school for a government job--which I didn't take because it was the lowest of my offers.

I do think the unsatisfactory (to many people here) answer is to assume that if you graduated from the right schools you're probably OK with respect to certification.

Ultimately the status quo of getting bombarded with Leetcode rounds every time you want to switch jobs seems untenable, even if in theory each round should get easier with the grind.

What happened to DRY. Just take it once and have it be recognized by all.

Or they just don’t trust the exam process. Lot of people with degrees and certifications but no idea. And people with no certifications and great skills.

It's almost like software wants to be a real profession when it grows up, like Doctor or Lawyer or Engineer. Doctors generally only take the one MCAT. Lawyers generally only take the one Bar Exam per state they expect to work in. Civil/Mechanical/Chemical Engineers only take the one FEng/PE combo of exams for their discipline.

It's fascinating how many people in the software industry want the title "Engineer" but don't want benefits of the title like standardized tests and ethics boards because they are afraid of standardized tests and ethics boards.

Outside of civil engineering PEs aren't common. There was one for CS but no one took it. PEs are mostly useful for people signing stuff off for regulators.

Yet:

1.) "Every time" is 10+ years apart for a lot of folks

and

2.) If you look at the requirements for things like PEs (at least the last time I looked at them), you have requirements like 4-year degrees, having worked under a PE for some number of years, etc. in addition to the tests, which I assume a lot of people here would object to.

1) Not so much in tech hubs, especially during the long boom of the last decade. And having to take the same test at potentially a dozen different companies every ten years is still a poor experience.

2) Surely an attempt at standardization in this industry, like the similarly hypothetical pipe dream of a widespread software tech worker's union, would include adapting to the unique characteristics and mores of the industry? There's no need to fully copy other disciplines' practices in complete detail. Though we should include the ring ceremony, that would be cool.

The whole point of this is that Leetcode has essentially become a de facto standardized test for many many jobs in this industry, and if we are to recognize that reality, we might as well make it DRY.