My objection is maintaining an entirely unrelated skillset that I have never encounter in my day to day work.
It is a skill that you will lose if you spend a year without interviewing/leetcode practicing.
Sure I’ll do it, but you may as well test me on painting famous oil artwork from memory too.
> I don't understand why people prefer "here take home questions/work for 5 hours for free" over DS&A interview.
The alternative is hundreds of hours of speculative investment memorizing books/websites of algos. People will take full time courses on passing these interviews.