Not if we had a few weeks of prep time.
I've been in coding interviews that matched the work that the company is doing, and I've found those useful - I get something from taking the interview (an idea of what their codebase is like, working with a partner, maybe some interesting code design questions), but I'm never going to do another "code this CS algorithim that 100% of people use a library for nowadays" type questions.
And I have no reason to waste my time spending a few weeks prepping for a code interview, either. I am who I am. Either you want that, or you don't. I'm not going to try to spend weeks studying so I can pretend to be different than I am.
(Disclaimer: I'm not looking, and I haven't been for a very long time. I've never been desperate while looking. I haven't even been unemployed while looking in over 30 years. If I were unemployed and watching the bills pile up, I might feel a whole lot less smug...)
Preparing for interviews isn't wasted time provided you have some chance of success. The signing bonus alone can be worth the time.
