I assume its because his resume showed hes worked at sexy startups recently (true or not)

Having worked at sexy-startup for 9 months recently with a good excuse why you left would get your resume to the top of the pile if it was read

Is it still common to ask leetcode questions during interview?

Leetcode questions are still the primary way to test skill in interviews.

Where? I have candidates solve a real closed-ended problem in the space we’re working in. I also give them a lot of source code to read and respond to and find issues with.

But this approach takes a certain amount of time and effort, and requires interviewers who are skilled at interviewing.

Leetcode provides an extremely lazy and cheap way of “solving” the problem of assessing an applicant’s skills.

most medium to large size companies

No explanation has been provided to show hes good at leetcode either.