Yet, if you want to pass a technical interview, that's the game. If you would like to introspect, having a large number of passes before you changed course was unnecessary.

I also interviewed and received job offers after burning out at startups, i listened to the advice to spend 6 weeks on hacker rank and top coder. I passed all my technical interviews. I was also coding on two personal open source projects, but practical cussing and interview coding are 90 pct different as you say.

I don't know if i will succeed at having impact at a large company. Tell you in 6 months. But i am iterating fast and following advice of the people around me.

You didn't mention the effect of being unemployable because your standards are going up. This is an occupational hazard of having more experience. Sorry about that, there are things you can't unsee . It happens to everyone, and an underdiscussed reason there are more young coders. Good luck.