It seems pretty obvious to me that this kind of interviews are simply there to assess how much you want to work for a certain company. As in: would you be willing to study for months, go through mock interviews, read books, test your skills etc. to have a shot at working for us? Even though the majority of that stuff will likely have zero impact on your day to day work?
That's all there is, really. I've had no problems in the past implementing complex algorithms, if I needed it to get the job done. Today I'd barely be able to tell you their names. But to get to the point of knowing most of them by heart and being able to implement them with no help whatsoever, would take a lot more work and dedication, knowing that you'll probably end up not retaining most of it anyway.
The same system is used in competitive sports and academic tests. They mostly measure how much you really want to be part of that league/team/school, rather than whether you'll do well or not. If there was a perfect correlation between pre and post entrance test performance there wouldn't be PIPs, performance based layoffs etc.
That's all there is, really. I've had no problems in the past implementing complex algorithms, if I needed it to get the job done. Today I'd barely be able to tell you their names. But to get to the point of knowing most of them by heart and being able to implement them with no help whatsoever, would take a lot more work and dedication, knowing that you'll probably end up not retaining most of it anyway.
The same system is used in competitive sports and academic tests. They mostly measure how much you really want to be part of that league/team/school, rather than whether you'll do well or not. If there was a perfect correlation between pre and post entrance test performance there wouldn't be PIPs, performance based layoffs etc.