alt Hacker NewsJust my personal take on this, but I’d happily perform real work for free instead of sitting for leetcodes and behavioral questions. I struggle with those formats a lot but have no problems shipping in a realistic problem domain.
That tradeoff makes enough economic sense to me personally, but to each their own.
I do agree that companies flush with profit should be able to offer a stipend though, and unwillingness to do so is a signal I use to evaluate them.
Everyone prefers real problems. It's something you already know how to do instead of something you explicitly have to train for.
It doesn't change the fact that the real work could be an hour's exercise or longer remunerated work. This isn't an either/or scenario like you put it. Plus, for a fact, companies will happily have you doing both the leetcode and the take-home test.