If they are testing for quality X and the test says &quot;yes&quot; even though the person doesn&#x27;t have quality X, then it&#x27;s a false positive.<p>I&#x27;m saying that they view the riddles, data structure hazing, etc., as tests for quality X (where X == careful engineer who won&#x27;t inject N^2 complexity into something and make it take centuries).<p>But really, the puzzles and so forth do not select for that X. You get people who are good at the trivia, but who still otherwise would inject poor complexity. Meanwhile, you reject people who might be careful and pragmatic, but are not talented at the trivia.<p>From <i>their</i> perspective (since they believe it <i>does</i> test for X) it produces false positives.