I've interviewed many engineers in my career (I've been writing software for over 20 years.) I've evolved my process for finding good engineers. The problem w

I've interviewed many engineers in my career (I've been writing software for over 20 years.) I've evolved my process for finding good engineers. The problem with most technical interviews is that they end up asking trick questions, where the answer is more important than the process (and thus the "process of problem solving" is not even relevant.) You'll notice, this guy actually solved the problem in question, immediately, but that wasn't acceptable because it wasn't a technical solution. Critical thinking is very important, I agree. Far more important than problem solving, and one of the real problems is, that people think that these kinds of interviews actually reveal ones ability to think critically. They are not the same. Problem solving is more of a process one can learn, critical thinking is more of a talent, or maybe a willingness, to step outside the problem and evaluate, for instance, whether it should even be solved. In my experience- but I could be wrong- I would say there is a very strong correlation between being able to solve mathematical brain teasers and having trouble with critical thinking. (Unfortunately, these people do not realize that they have trouble engaging in critical thinking.) I can't find a correlation between solving the type of problems on google billboards and being good at critical thinking. Its mostly about awareness of obscure (to the mainstream, anyway) math. Being able to solve problems is good for an engineer. All good engineers can do this. Critical thinking, however, makes the great engineers great, and it eliminates the need to solve large numbers of tough problems. Engineers can end up in the weeds because they chase tough problems to solve (they're fun!) rather than employing critical thinking to keep focused on the important business problems. The examples from this blog are not very illustrative of my point, but there it is.