> The average Amazon engineer is not expected to have awareness of CS fundamentals that go beyond LeetCode-y challenges

I find this a bit unsettling. There are dozens of great CS schools in the US. Even non-elite BSc programs in EU sometimes teach formal methods.

There are also some good introductory books now, e.g. [1]. Perhaps its time to interview more on concepts and less on algorithmic tricks favored by LeetCode?

I doubt current undergrads can't go beyond LeetCode-like challenges.

[1] Formal Methods, An Appetizer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-05156-3