Why not just interview the developer? You can ask them technical questions that very clearly demonstrate if they understand how to code. You can also ask for code samples of past projects, or just pay them to code something small for 1 hour at home.

I don’t understand how this is hard. I’ve hired dozens of engineers in the last 10 years. I’ve never needed to resort to any google level leetcode tactics. It’s never made sense to me if the goal is to hire a quality software engineer that can get the job done. Maybe that’s not the goal for companies that make interviewees do this performative bullshit.