However, I disagree that that makes HR or LC valuable or a positive in the interview process. Basic DS and Algo questions do not require the types, number, or complicated questions one finds in HR or LC. Such questions are easy to come up with and test, and should be a notable, but minor part of the interview process.
HR and LC take what should be a minor (though important!) part of the interview process, and blow them to huge proportions, and thereby distort and harm the very process they're supposed to be helping. They do this, in an attempt to present themselves as having a larger value add than they actually do.
2. No license is required to work as a software engineer.
3. It is up to each company to verify their candidates.
and you are mistaken that it's up to the company to decide what happens. as an industry of professionals, it is our decision.
As a professional software engineer, you are expected to be proficient at those skills to an extent in which you can demonstrate them in practice.
The burden of verifying you acquired the skills associated with your education falls on the employer.
Fizzbuzz is trivial and should not be a problem for any developer at any level. Writing a binary search function should not be a problem either.
But I agree that the industry's obsession with competitive programming has gone too far in some cases, especially in cases where the skills being tested are not relevant for the job.
In practice, many colleges fail to teach those skills.
And accreditions depend on governments which are sometimes corrupt or inept.
any university in western europe is pretty hard to graduate at without actually having these skills. so it is pointless to enforce coding interviews for those who graduated there. you can’t “buy” a degree there.