<i>Google probably needs algorithmically savvy people, but that is surely not the case with most of the companies asking similar questions. If a company developing CRUD apps asks me to reverse a linked list, it is a sign to me that they are clueless.</i><p>The amusing thing about this is, from what I can tell, Google actually only needs a small number of people with the deep knowledge. Much of the work there still involves things like &quot;developing CRUD apps&quot;, just on top of the platforms and infrastructure the smaller group developed for it.<p>Which led to a characterization I once heard from an ex-Googler of the company as a place where &quot;they hire top CS Ph.Ds to do incredibly boring code-monkey work&quot;.