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Google and Facebook long ago stopped asking (or at least now they discourage their interviewers from asking) puzzle-like questions in their SWE interviews.

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They stopped asking brainteasers, they didn't stop asking algorithmic puzzles (some of which are arguably brainteasers)

...and which seem to largely be collected in the book Cracking the Coding Interview [1]. If you can answer all of their sample questions, you should do fine at a Google interview -- once your brain is used to the task of solving small algorithmic problems, it should get easier, even if the precise question they ask isn't in that book.

Easy for me to say, since I find problems like those easy; I cranked through a few dozen of them with only having to really think about a couple.

If you can't answer them all yet...well, now you have something specific to study.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-...

That's true. I think the OP is talking about puzzles in the more general sense (e.g. designing novel algorithms). It seems to me that it takes a specific type of mental state to enjoy theoretical CS and math, since much of your time there is spent banging your head against things until everything clicks into place.

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