In a 2013 NYT interview, some Google guy said:
On the hiring side, we found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.
It seems that many companies still continue asking such brainteaser questions, so is the above quote correct? What research is there on this matter?
Should companies continue this practice?
Edit: I'm hoping to get more general answers, and not just for interviews for programming or tech jobs. E.g. I hear that i-banks like Goldman Sachs like these puzzles too. So do some college admissions interviewers. Do they work?