> but coding challenges do catch a lot of bad hires.

leetcode doesn't catch bad hires, as someone whos done a lot of interviews, we could easily catch "bad" coders with a very simple whiteboard test or a "look at this code and tell me what you think"

but people being bad at code aren't the company killers, its the toxic people who are "good" at coding that do. They can be very good at these kind of tests, but are absolute shites to work with.

I think we actually agree more that I let on, and you are right that coding tests should only be a part of the interview process.