What does an interviewer expect from a candidate who has less than 2 yoe?

It really depends on the company. I've heard companies like google only ask DSA in their coding rounds. Nothing else. You should do company specific search about this honestly. Youtube is very helpful IMO

In the initial rounds itself I would check for the fundamentals.
say for frontend, i would check for plain html, css and javascript, take points from resume, talk indepth about them, simple html css responsive page.
Looks simple but most of them fail to answer these itself coz nowadays everyone focuses on writing react only that too at the very base level itself. Backend- cpu, process, middleware, database queries.
In past couple of years talent of folks has gone up multiple times so depends on company I am interviewing for and have come across freshers who would beat me with their knowledge levels when I had say 4 years of work exp.

Interviewers expect a strong DSA foundation and a dash of problem-solving flair. System design? Rarely for your experience level. Now, how about coding a solution for a real-world problem?

Interviewers expect you to code, not recite poetry. DSA is your Bible. System design? Only if they're out of DSA questions.