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I think ITA's job screening process is quite nice: Post an interesting puzzle and ask anyone to submit answers. Spend as much time on it as you wish.

Their puzzle archive: http://www.itasoftware.com/careers/puzzle_archive.html?catid...

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Google used to do that - if you remember their "Great people needed" campaign from 2002-2005, they did fun stuff like putting coding problems on billboards that solved to the phone number you had to call to submit to apply, or the "Google Labs Aptitude Test" that was basically a parody of standardized testing.

I think the reason they don't anymore is that they're a household name. They get tons of applications without any clever tricks. In some ways, I think this is too bad, because it attracts applicants who (in JWZ's words) "want to work for a successful company instead of working to make a company successful." But there's really no way to turn back the clock and make Google hip & unknown anymore.

My personal favourite questions from that quiz were:

* How many ways are there of painting the sides of a cube using four different colors?

* Which colors would you choose?

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