If I see a company that puts out programming puzzles in an attempt to hire people, my respect for them increases ever so slightly. Consequently, I think working for them will be more fun.<p>I cannot explain why I feel this way, but I do. If you have any arguments/reasons why this is incorrect, please comment and let me know.<p>So far I've seen Quora, ITA and Facebook do it. I'm sure there are tons more that I am unaware of.
Being able to solve programming puzzles does not mean someone is going to be a good coder, but it will probably help weed out people that don't have the analytical skill that a company needs -- assuming the company needs coders with strong analytical skills.<p>Working for a company that has a need for people with strong analytical skills would be more fun than working for one that doesn't. Software that doesn't require <i>thinking</i> is a bit boring, even if there are parts like that in all software.<p>Personally, my respect for the company would increase if I solved a fairly difficult programming problem, and they interviewed heavily on working with other people's code, and making your code able to be worked on by other people (this is a kinda hefty topic...). I'd be pretty assured that I would be working in an intellectually stimulating environment with competent peers -- and that would be awesome.<p>I'm not aware of many other companies that put out "solve a problem" types of hiring screenings, other than google.