> I would imagine the most important qualities to have in an interview are going to be charisma and an ability to reason through technical problems. My guess,

> I would imagine the most important qualities to have in an interview are going to be charisma and an ability to reason through technical problems. My guess, as someone who has occasionally been the hiring manager, is that this is true, but so is the leetcode crap. It's leetcode that gets you far enough to meet someone who matters. It's charisma and reasoning ability that will get you an offer. I've met plenty of applicants who could give me superficially correct answers, but with any kind of detailed conversation it became clear that this was basically all they could do. When I hire someone for my team, I don't want leetcode answers, I want someone who can solve problems. I want someone that seems like they'll work well on the team. I want someone low maintenance and at least adequately productive. But this is just a medium sized software company and not a FAANG.