Every interview process sucks. I interviewed and got a job at a company that modeled their hiring on Google's asking me puzzle type questions. I can do really good with those. Doesn't say a thing about my coding skills. I feel sorry for the companies that model their process on Google's, especially the small startups because you need the exceptional engineers that fall through such cracks to really boost your business.

It's not so much the rationale of this interview process, reading the response from other Googlers seems to show that this selection process does a good job of maintaining a cultural fit for those that make the cut. The problem is that it seems to make enemies of people without a hardcore technical background when a simple review of their background would help both sides from pain.