lll-o-lll parent
Because puzzle solving is an iq proxy and iq is correlated with job performance? But really, just do an iq test. Maybe because interviewers are bad at distinguishing gpt style BSing from actual knowledge and need a baseline test.
The correlation between IQ and job performance is typically weak[0] (weaker than the correlation between conscientiousness+agreeableness on job performance in some studies[1]) with a more modest correlation for "high complexity jobs".
Interesting excerpt from [0]:
> Finally, it seems that even the weak IQ-job performance correlations usually reported in the United States and Europe are not universal. For example, Byington and Felps (2010) found that IQ correlations with job performance are “substantially weaker” in other parts of the world, including China and the Middle East, where performances in school and work are more attributed to motivation and effort than cognitive ability.
[0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4557354/ [1]: https://www.academia.edu/download/50754745/The_Interactive_E...
Sorry about the PDF link to [1]. The APA link has a paywall otherwise I'd link there.