> is there anything that isn’t meaningless, then?

Invert a binary tree.

I wish there was a job board where the interview process only entailed actual context specific take-home tests (think create a real-time analytics board consuming an example internal API), instead of these leetcode games which I can memorize and then spew out like a mindless robot.

> Then spew out like a mindless robot.

I think you just explained extremely clearly, why hiring managers aren't really into that sort of candidate.

What do you mean? Forgive my lack of nuance

Once I sunk a day into a take-home test. It went well, and I got to chat with a manager for half an hour. They said they weren't interested with no added context. Setting aside that take-home tests favor people who have time on their hands, the time investment can be very asymmetric, and it doesn't scale for the candidate.

Pretty sure GPT4 can do that trivially. Think harder.

> is there anything that isn’t meaningless, then?

Well, now that you mention it... no.

But that's just fine. "Meaning" doesn't have to be some big ol' thing. So the whole universe is meaningless; so what? Big whoop.

And in this big, empty universe, maybe all that matters is finding something beautiful, something rare, something brilliant and destined for greatness, something like... a candidate who can code a few lines worth of decent code on the spot.

The truth is, if you give the candidate a moderately realistic problem and a blank canvas, the first 5 minutes of watching their hands on a keyboard (or equivalent, if they don't have hands) will probably tell you 80% of what you need to know. If you know what to look for.