It's interesting to me that Google's interview process is so onerous considering that they admit it has little predictive value. It seems to me that a policy of probationary hires might be more productive. Perform an initial screening to weed out the obviously unsuited and then bring candidates on for six-month contracts and see how they do. It would still be more onerous than what most companies do, but a six-month track record would certainly be predictive of future results.
Frankly, the use of highly-technical trick questions strikes me as embarrassing.
