Ultimately, the problem is that every person has their own anecdata-driven or follow-the-leader-inspired ideas about how to interview effectively, and large swaths of them are in stark opposition to each other.

And now after decades of research, we're still using magic potions that mostly don't make sense.

It makes sense alright.

The qualities that are needed to grind the algorithms, system design, and what have you have a nice correlation with success later

Perseverance, diligence, sheer will to grok the somewhat boring shit.

Even writing some code in the notepad/whiteboard means you have enough mental RAM/stack/context window to keep the bits in the head.

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So it ain’t no “magic potion”. Ideally we had a less strenuous thing ( Bloodborne/Dark Souls platinum trophy for the diligence part? :-) ) but you can’t always have what you want.

Yes, the best way to land yourself a good gig is to have a friend in the company already and will put a good word.