Is anybody else annoyed by these kinds of articles confusing Fermi problems (how many piano tuners in Seattle or golfballs in school bus) with Brainteasers (why manhole covers are round, or crazy questions about perfectly rational guys on an island wearing hats)?
It seems to me that those types of questions are very different in terms of what they're testing for. Fermi problems in particular show how you might go about approaching a problem, and there may be many different correct answers or ways to approach it, and the goal isn't to get to the "right answer".
Brainteasers, in contrast, either test whether you can recall or figure out an extremely specific problem, or whether you're good at solving certain types of logic puzzles under pressure.
It may well be that both of these types of questions don't give useful information about a candidate, but they are vastly different overall.
It seems to me that those types of questions are very different in terms of what they're testing for. Fermi problems in particular show how you might go about approaching a problem, and there may be many different correct answers or ways to approach it, and the goal isn't to get to the "right answer".
Brainteasers, in contrast, either test whether you can recall or figure out an extremely specific problem, or whether you're good at solving certain types of logic puzzles under pressure.
It may well be that both of these types of questions don't give useful information about a candidate, but they are vastly different overall.