>The US has a huge delta between its great universities and its mediocre ones. There are some smart and sharp kids everywhere in even the lowest ranked schools. But altogether the amount of people who can pass a code screen in the US is pretty low. If you ever interviewed people for a software position in a big tech firm, you'd realize this.

I'm convinced that the code screen functions as a somewhat arbitrary filter/badge of honor.

FAANG and equivalents get tens of thousands of applicants and they cannot hire them all

If too many pass the code screen, they will just make it harder, even though the job hasn't gotten any more difficult.

Or they get failed at system design. Which is BS in many cases.