Where on Earth did you get an idea that creativity was needed in the first place? Creativity is not scalable, even dangerous, and big companies strive to scale

Where on Earth did you get an idea that creativity was needed in the first place? Creativity is not scalable, even dangerous, and big companies strive to scale => they need obidient soldiers, playing by the rules and just smart enough to not f*ck up a critical project. Hence the Leetcode. It's a perfect way to ensure obidience, just enough brains, patience and motivation to risk wasting few month of preparation to the interview for the chance to get in FAANG. If you want to be creative — "go fund yourself"! :) I mean it in a positive way, because I feel exactly like you, ready to dump my current well payed job for the risky chance to do whatever I myself feel interesting and meaningful. Wish you best of luck finding your challenges, and don't be so hard on yourself, leetcode is not a big deal anymore. Besides, there are plenty of startups these days full of creative people without leetcode mindset.