Fizzbuzz as a predecessor to whiteboard DS/algo problems was different than my recollection, so I did some digging. 2007: this is when I first encountered fizz

Fizzbuzz as a predecessor to whiteboard DS/algo problems was different than my recollection, so I did some digging. 2007: this is when I first encountered fizzbuzz as an idea https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/ 2005 article linked from there: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/01/27/news-58/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/01/27/news-58/ That second article is interesting in this conversation because it's main contention is that the vast majority of any applicants to any position you're trying to hire for are going to be terrible. Which is the phenomenon seen by others as well and discussed in Atwood's 2007 one. They don't really talk about the Google style DS/algo problems, so yeah, seems like those became popular later. But it suggests the hiring experience for companies has long been awful. The sort of experience you had - a good conversation about a detailed relevant technical area - is something that I've never personally found common when trying to hire. Most candidates still aren't great if you're looking to do even moderately greenfield development (even if not particularly interesting - just being able to put together a decent scaffold of an idea). Leetcode - the site - is an interesting phenomenon because it's full of problems far harder than any I've seen in practice at FAANGs and similar. Stuff I've encountered in the real world seems to fall into the Easy or Medium buckets. After being at a BigCo and hiring some people who aced whiteboard coding and failed on simple everyday things, though, I certainly would never again use something like that as the only factor.