I recently started getting back into interviewing after 8 years of working at one company.

And Leetcode is not the worst part of it.

Modifying CV, applying, hostile forms, receiving rejection after rejection. Not getting what I am missing.

Leetcode in this scenario is puzzle solving game with clear rules, progress and success definition.

Some of the problems are genuinely fun, like dynamic programming. Some of them are just, "you have to know the trick".

In my case, i would never be able to even get an actual interview if not for these technical screens where you solve a problem and not try to persuade another human to give you a chance.

The biggest issue is that they put the AI/HR filtering before the technical screening. I suspect it'd be a lot less painful if candidates were at least given the chance to show their tech skills before instantly filtered out by AI.