[decafninja]

Often times none of that is tested during the interview though, so you don't know whether the person is knowledgable on any of those or other frontend specifics until you've hired them because they were able to pass an leetcode DS&A phonescreen and 3-4 leetcode DS&A onsite rounds.

I've noticed this is changing (spearheaded by FAANG & other top tech companies it seems) - there are frontend specific tracks that test more JavaScript knowledge than leetcode puzzles.

But as usual, if there is a cutting edge, there are many more laggards, and I'd say many companies are still doing leetcode DS&A for frontend too.

[dimmke]

It really just depends on where you're interviewing. A lot of places that hire software engineers don't ask algorithmic questions at all.

It's really impossible to generalize about most aspects of this career in my opinion. There are no hard rules about anything, even hiring.

I think about this in relation to the "skill gap" in programming a lot. There are people who work in very senior positions in software development who couldn't do a LeetCode easy or a FizzBuzz. They don't read articles about how to get better at programming or about concepts like DRY etc... but maybe they do the very specific thing their employer wants well enough, that combined with their long tenure and relationships with other people they are pretty much lifers.

That's why I laugh when I see articles on Hacker News articles where it says if you don't do X Y or Z you're not a "real" programmer. Meanwhile a huge swath of people employed as programmers haven't even heard of a lot of this stuff, much less actually used it.

[decafninja]

"where" is the key word here I think. But at least in the vicinity of the major US coastal cities (SFBA, Seattle, NYC, probably LA and a few others) where a lot of tech jobs are concentrated, I would say most companies are in fact, leetcoding candidates to some degree.

Half my team is in London (big bank), as is my manager, and I know they leetcode candidates there too - and we're not even a tech company or elite financial firm, just a boring big conservative bank.

If you're looking for a job in this day and age, I think it's safer to assume you're going to get leetcoded and be prepared. Rather than try to find the rarer and rarer company that doesn't leetcode you.