I never know what people are talking about when they complain about brainteasers and riddles. In my career, I've interviewed at Amazon (x2), Google (x2), Apple, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, and Fitbit (5 offers, 3 hires).
At all of these companies, solving coding problems was part of the interview process, as were systems design questions, and behavioral interviewing. At none of them was I asked questions that I considered "CS trivia" let alone brainteasers and riddles. Instead the focus was on problem solving, algorithms and data structures, concurrency and other topics. You know, the things you use as a working programmer.
I get that this interview style is not to everyone's liking, but to just call it "bad interview practices" without either defining what it is or why it is bad is lazy and unhelpful. There is genuine signal that comes out of these interviews and the companies seem to be doing alright.
I never know what people are talking about when they complain about brainteasers and riddles. In my career, I've interviewed at Amazon (x2), Google (x2), Apple, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, and Fitbit (5 offers, 3 hires).
At all of these companies, solving coding problems was part of the interview process, as were systems design questions, and behavioral interviewing. At none of them was I asked questions that I considered "CS trivia" let alone brainteasers and riddles. Instead the focus was on problem solving, algorithms and data structures, concurrency and other topics. You know, the things you use as a working programmer.
I get that this interview style is not to everyone's liking, but to just call it "bad interview practices" without either defining what it is or why it is bad is lazy and unhelpful. There is genuine signal that comes out of these interviews and the companies seem to be doing alright.