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It's because they're not programming tests, but IQ tests with CS concepts as their medium. They want smart people so they test for it the best way they can (i.e. in ways that won't run afoul of employment laws).

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Which IMHO is bad. They should be programming tests.

I think its reasonable for the likes of google and facebook to consider the most important trait of their hires to be their intelligence. Even if most people at these companies are really just CRUD developers, you never know who the next big idea will come from. Consider how many products came out of google that were side projects of one of their engineers. Hiring smart people is an investment in these companies' future.

The problem is when the random nothing-but-CRUD companies/startups think they need google-caliber engineers.

I totally agree. I'm interviewing someone tomorrow morning, and I plan to give them a simple finite state machine problem in C. Full open book (i.e. access to the web), and they're free to compile and run as many times as they want. You’d be surprised how many candidates can't implement something as simple as fizzbuzz.

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