I had an MS interview a few weeks ago and it contained no irrelevant logic questions. Sure it involved moronic things like regurgitating Moore's voting algorithm and atoi but it at least involved code.

retaken, perhaps.

True. Microsoft has been famous for those for decades.

Many others have read the published books and incorporated the same in their processes.

I had a series of interviews that was all logic questions with a trick that you had to decode to successfully answer it.

It's cute, and everyone gets to feel really proud of themselves if they can solve an applied prisoners dilemma for the answer everyone in the room is looking for, but it's not relevant to the performance of any position that I was being considered.

I'm involved in a lot of interviews and I think the problem is getting worse. Taking all of your questions from a certification exam, constructing a bubble sort, or talking about why manhole covers are circles might be satisfying to a bad interviewer, but does no one a service IMHO.

I'd suggest diving deep into past work experience and ask them to show you something that they have done well so that you can understand the utility that they provide. Very few people that I encounter do this and then try to pound round pegs into square holes.

I've spent some time at MSFT (including a transfer) and know a few recent hires across the lake and NONE of them (including myself) have had any of these sort of questions. A few data structures and algorithms type questions, but never the 'how many pennies fit in this room' type stuff that they're supposedly so famous for.

Were they well known for it because they did it, or because people assumed they did it? An awful lot of people immediately jump to "stupid brain teasers" when hearing "they ask technical questions". I have people write code and solve actual problems during interviews, and have gotten several "these kinds of riddles are a waste of time" responses from people who are offended by the notion that I want them to be competent.

From my limited anecdotes of the time, I believe Google actually did it. We're not talking about programming-related brain teasers here, we're talking about non-programming ones.

e.g., "3 light bulbs in a room" and "family crossing the bridge" being the classic examples.

Never heard the family crossing the bridge one. Which one is that?

You have a bridge that can only take a certain amount of weight at once without collapsing. It's dark at night and you have only one flashlight. A flashlight is required to cross the bridge, which is traversable in both directions.

You have a family of people of varying weights (the exact numbers you'd have to look up) - determine the optimal way for the family to make it across the bridge.

Thanks. I don't think that's a bad one. In fact, like the Towers of Hanoi, I think it has enough parallels with computer science and engineering to be a good interview question.

Indeed, it is a specific instance of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem

I've heard the same thing, always from unreliable "I heard" sources. I've never heard anyone who actually did interviews or was interviewed say that.

I was interviewed by Google and had to answer this "brain teaser" kind of questions. So, no, it is not just folklore.

Can you be specific with some examples? As demonstrated elsewhere in the thread, some people perceive the same questions as appropriate and others perceive them as "brain teasers".