Does solving math problems make you a good programmer?
alphamule: I think that most people miss the point of these sorts of questions.  I don't ask them just to figure out if the person can answer it or not.  a scantron with all the answers filled in would be useless to me.  I ask them to watch how the person approaches problems, how they think, how well they communicate and how they interact with people while trying to solve a problem.  a person who spits out the answer in 5 seconds, but acts like this question is beneath them is a strong no hire, but someone who struggles a bit, but finds some interesting insights along the way has a good chance.