I write business applications for a living. Often, for whatever reason, an interviewer asks me to write up a program to solve some kind of game like problem. I find this to be an inappropriate question for two main reasons:
Games often deal with constructs that are rarely used in business dev. E.G. Multi-dimensional arrays. Store player locations on a checkerboard for instance. (Maybe it's just me, but I never use these things in biz)
My usual tools like BL/DL, ORMs and even designing the entities themselves don't translate well. So I often end up with some goofy lookin code to start. This is especially awkward if the interviewer is looking over your should to determine how "well you code". Horribly uncomfortable, because...well I don't code like that...I don't write games for a living either.
Do you folks use them in your interviews and have they been effective for learning about a business apps dev?