I've been following the latest rounds on technical interviews, and I think this post raises an important question. Based on my interview experiences at Amazon

I've been following the latest rounds on technical interviews, and I think this post raises an important question. Based on my interview experiences at Amazon Google, and a few other companies that emulate them, I would tend to agree that the interview process places almost no emphasis on certain types of creativity. They really are data structures and algorithms exams. I'd be careful not to claim there is no creativity tested, as I would argue that there is a kind of creativity in figuring out how to find the square sub matrix with the larges sum in an NxN matrix, especially if you haven't seen the problem before. But it is true, the ability to see the value in software and build something interesting and useful with it isn't tested, at all. This blog post makes another good observation - if there is a limited amount of time and mental space, the two could even start to negatively correlate. I've been thinking a lot about this in terms of another hobby of mine, music. Think about the difference between a great session musician and a wonderfully creative songwriter. The first can do amazing things musically, but might draw a complete blank on what he or she has written. The second may only be able play the open chords, but write truly wonderful songs. Google essentially tests you like a session musician. Can you play a B flat diminished scale? Put together a quick 4 bar run. Oh, the singer needs to do this in E, immediately shift to that scale, and do it again. Here's the song, and lyrics, oh, there's this one tricky part, let's go over that, ok, ready to record? Great session musicians really can do those things. Aside: Now, some might reasonably object, saying I've given an overly rosy view of what a tech test truly is, because those are all things a session musician does in the day to day job. But what tech interviewers really do is interview a bassoon player, grill her on obscure points in jazz theory on paper, allow her to strum on "air guitar" but never actually letting her pick up an instrument, and in the unlikely event she passes, will later place her as an oboe player in an orchestra, figuring, close enough. Plenty of support for that point of view on tech hiring as well. And truth is, there are people who are interested in great songwriters, thing is, you don't audition for the role. You need to create great songs and get someone's attention. No creative person can be successful just by being creative. In this sense, I suppose google (along other large tech companies) does value creativity, it does this by finding and purchasing new technology and startups at 100+ times the rate they would have paid in salary.