My major at my college has a class that asks these kinds of questions on tests. It's widely considered to be one of the most difficult and painful weed out courses in the major. We were asked to describe how we would make an elephant fly, how much oil is used to make all the french toast for waffle house in a day, and other silly questions.<p>We were also asked to rewrite non-linear equations in new units, design simple industrial scale chemical processes, and generally do the kinds of problem solving engineering trains you to do.<p>These kinds of problems <i>are</i> relevant when done properly. The ability to reason with enormous quantities, think logically and out-of-the-box at once, make consistent complex plans, and, finally, explain these things to another person are often instrumental for solving problems and building new things. Those who passed <i>and enjoyed</i> this class are easy to pick out: they've been breezing through all of the upper level problem solving and group-based classes.<p>At the same time, I think something like that bike-for-the-blind answer is genius. Sometimes it does come down to rejecting the question or, perhaps better, redefining it in a way that is creative and useful. Who knows how well interviewers are prepared to respond to these answers though?