I've had a few of these in my time, and I think, to an extent, they're legit, and I'll explain why.
I was asked once - "how many gas pumps are in Raleigh?". I asked back "do you mean pumps for the general public, or do we need to include commercial/industrial pumps too?" and "do you actually mean Raleigh proper or the metro Raleigh area? if so, how do we define that? All of the county?"
Next question was "go to the whiteboard and design a house". I took out the marker, started to draw, then turned and asked "who will be living there? Is this a single family or duplex? mobile home? stick built or modular?" and a couple other questions.
I was told I was the first people to ask questions before drawing.
I take the point of the brainteaser-type questions to be "how do you react to issues that come up where you don't know a lot of stuff?". For some positions, this is less important, but if you're a customer-facing position - even in development, you may interact with customers or other business units - how do you react when you get odd-ball "left field"-type questions? Do you keep your cool? Do you just react and say "that's stupid!"? Do you walk out in protest? Do you probe for more detailed information before making a pronouncement?
More than ever, I think 'brainteaser' questions are far more about personality-judging than intellect or even raw "problem solving" ability.
Yeah, I agree with this. I've been asked a similar problem to the gas pump one and a brain teaser one as well. The goal for them is to be able to get a better feel for how you deal with the problems, not necessarily the solutions that you come up and how accurate they are.
Being a dick to an interviewer (as basically suggested in comments above) is great if you like being unemployed.
Additionally, though (and I think you're saying this), it's not just how you come up with a solution from a technical/procedural standpoint. It's more - how do you react in situations that are outside of your comfortzone? And as you said, being rude to an interviewer is a sure way to stay outside their company.
I was asked once - "how many gas pumps are in Raleigh?". I asked back "do you mean pumps for the general public, or do we need to include commercial/industrial pumps too?" and "do you actually mean Raleigh proper or the metro Raleigh area? if so, how do we define that? All of the county?"
Next question was "go to the whiteboard and design a house". I took out the marker, started to draw, then turned and asked "who will be living there? Is this a single family or duplex? mobile home? stick built or modular?" and a couple other questions.
I was told I was the first people to ask questions before drawing.
I take the point of the brainteaser-type questions to be "how do you react to issues that come up where you don't know a lot of stuff?". For some positions, this is less important, but if you're a customer-facing position - even in development, you may interact with customers or other business units - how do you react when you get odd-ball "left field"-type questions? Do you keep your cool? Do you just react and say "that's stupid!"? Do you walk out in protest? Do you probe for more detailed information before making a pronouncement?
More than ever, I think 'brainteaser' questions are far more about personality-judging than intellect or even raw "problem solving" ability.