The class is being taught in the Computer Science department, not the software engineering or programming department. I think the bigger issue is the conflation of CS and SWE.

To your point about how you interview, unless there is an alternative I would never be able to apply to your company. I have no open source contributions or code samples to share and no interest in writing a book. I also have no interest in applying to places with take home exams where the company gets me to spend time interviewing without a commensurate investment of time on their part.

Where does that leave us? I guess it’s not ideal but, at least for me, the current process seems like it’s at least a local maximum.