Google interviews: would you get a job with the search giant?

From the Guardian:

For some job seekers, Google is the shining city on the hill. It's where the smartest people do the coolest things. In the US, Google regularly ranks at or near the top of Fortune magazine's list of 100 Best Companies To Work For. But unsexy firms also find themselves with multiple well-qualified applicants for each position. That is very good for the companies that are able to hire. Like Google, they get to cherry-pick the top talent in their fields. It's not so good for the applicants. They are confronting harder, ruder, more invasive vetting.

This is most evident in the interviews. There are, of course, many types of questions traditionally asked in job interviews. These include the "behavioural" questions that have almost become clichés: "What is your biggest failure in life?" Questions relating to business: "How would you describe Holland & Barrett to a person visiting from another country?" And finally, there are open-ended mental challenges, such as how you would weigh an elephant without using a scale – something for which Google is particularly known, an attempt to measure mental flexibility and even entrepreneurial potential. The answer? Nudge the beast on to a barge. The elephant's weight will cause the barge to sink several inches in the water. Draw a line on the barge's hull to mark the water level. Then direct the elephant back on to land. Load the barge with 100lb bags of sand (or whatever is handy) until it sinks to the line marked on the hull. The elephant weighs as much as the sand.