Point taken & worth considering.

For what it's worth, I don't love the idea of a gatekeeping body issuing certifications for software engineering via high-stakes testing. High stakes tests like those offered to architects and doctors don't always ensure that the person is a good professional, just a good test taker.

But maybe there should be some equivalent of apprentice, journeyman, and master in engineering. Or some other licensing scheme.

Ultimately, architecture firms and hospitals still have to evaluate candidates, but they do so with the basic premise that the job seeker is a professional.

I'm arguing for the same basic premise in software. If a candidate's past experience indicates they should know how to build software, then let's not ask them to code a random algorithm on a whiteboard under a time constraint with none of the professional tools they'd normally use.