I think you misunderstood my comment about whether a hiring manager has the ability to judge online code, I wasn't suggesting they're incompetent, I'm trying to point out that you can't expect even an amazing programmer with decades of experience to understand what the hell you were trying to do with your code -- in a reasonable amount of time. Styles and goals can be as different as night and day. I believe I'm a very good programmer, but I can't tell from github whether you are. I have to talk to you to figure that out.

Look, this is the same as taking tests in school. Tests suck, but there's a reason we have to take tests and not just only turn in homework. The reason is that you need to demonstrate that you can do it on your own in a time-bound environment. Github doesn't demonstrate that even when you're amazing. Talking to someone who can ask questions about your abilities, and demonstrating your abilities on the spot is the way to do that, just like taking a test. I'm sorry it's less comfortable than posting online, but it's reality.

Leetcode doesn't have more weight than projects in my book, and I didn't mention it, neither did the top comment, so I'm not clear why you're saying that. Are you referring to the article?

> the discussion here is regarding whiteboard algorithms vs actual experience

The discussion in this sub-thread was about interviews & online portfolios. I wasn't talking about whiteboarding.

> Companies are willing to waste the candidates time [...] asking algorithm questions makes the interviewer feel smart.

I can't speak to all companies, you are probably right about many of them.

However, young grads today seem to feel entitled to easy interviews and job offers from all of them. What I hear in your post is some angst and frustration. I can understand that. I think it's a buyer's market. Getting a good job means figuring out how to stand out from the rest of the crowd, and it's really, really hard to do that with code alone.

It's true that companies are optimizing for their own needs, just as you are optimizing for your own needs. You can choose to see that negatively, as them wasting your time, or you can take more control of your interviews, and work to protect your own time.

The deal on offer is, if you pass the interviews, then you get paid well to code. Or, you can go start your own company and make your own money.

If you paid attention in school and understand algorithms, them you should think of algorithm questions as the easy part of the interview, something you can pass without problems. The questions are there to see if you care about algorithms and understand the basics. Don't take them personally, and understand that the questions are for all candidates, and they need to filter people out who don't know algorithms. So stop complaining about the easy questions, and start spending your time figuring out what the hard questions are and how to ace them. (Also, just FYI people who complain about certain kinds of interview questions is a small red flag in my book. If you love programming, algos might not be the exact thing you want to do, but it's part of the job pre-requisites and basic knowledge, so enjoy them instead of fighting them.)