I love this idea. Testing how well someone can learn new skills can be just as important as the skills they've already learned. However, the problem is that as soon as it becomes known that Google is giving tests in Fortran 1988, applicants will study Fotran 1988 and thereby reduce the efficacy of the test. It will also have the sad side effect of incentivizing people to waste time studying Fortran 1988 rather than building skills useful to their job. It seems to be a good interview needs to satisfy the following properties:
* Predictive of job performance
* Either (1) difficult to optimize against or (2) easy to optimize against but in a way that doesn't reduce predictive value
> However, the problem is that as soon as it becomes known that Google is giving tests in Fortran 1988, applicants will study Fotran 1988 and thereby reduce the efficacy of the test.
How about "Google is giving tests in these 25 languages"? They could even choose languages that are purposefully dissimilar from any language that you've claimed familiarity with.
* Predictive of job performance
* Either (1) difficult to optimize against or (2) easy to optimize against but in a way that doesn't reduce predictive value
* Low cost to give
* Low cost to take