This is why I wish system design questions were more common. I couldn't care less if you can do a bunch of palindrome algorithm problems on a white board. I do care if you understand the scalability, maintainability, and implications of your code. And if you understand how different data structures work and are used. Most whiteboard problems fail spectacularly at this.
I agree that, in principle, system design interviews are great. The problem is that, in practice, I have seen them generate way too many false positives. This was at great companies and with people who had absolutely stunning resumes.
