True, but people generally don't want to get evicted or have their utilities turned off either. If you need a job you need a job, and the numbers out of Cali's job market puts a lot of tech people in a position where they might not have the luxury of waiting for the "right fit". As always, YMMV and the world is a big place, everyone's different, yadda yadda.

If you want to get top dollar at a FAANG you will need to go through these type of system design interviews. You could say you shouldn’t work for a FAANG which is fair, but FAANG pays top dollar.

So if you're after the FAANG money, you have to play the FAANG interview game. If you're unwilling to play the FAANG interview game, then maybe you shouldn't be pursuing FAANG money.

It's not just FAANG that do these interviews anymore.

Tiny startups do them now as well.

Doing FAANG interviews is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to getting a FAANG salary. As others have said, non-FAANGs are trying to do FAANG interviews, and I would tell them to pound sand.