Google's hiring process is broken because they can afford for it to be broken. There's no puzzle, and in fact the system contains a relatively large amount of l

Google's hiring process is broken because they can afford for it to be broken. There's no puzzle, and in fact the system contains a relatively large amount of luck (e.g. Yegge's Interviewer Anti-Loop phenomenon) which they try compensate for by encouraging repeat applications. There are almost certainly people "smart enough" to work at Google who do not. That's just a fact of life that Google seems to accept because, from their perspective, they're getting enough "smart enough" people already.