> if you're not able to easily spot such a candidate without attempting to make him/her to jump through the gimmicks (brainteasers, contract-to-hire, etc..) ell, it indicates the issue with your company and hiring practices in particular are deeper than just what gimmicks to apply.

I'm not sure if this is a joke, but I'll bite.

The entire problem with hiring is that no-one, I repeat, NO-ONE is capable of determining who are the best candidates. If they could then everyone would the same formula and this would be a solved issue.

GOOG and MSFT have tonnes of hiring data and they admit they can't do this very well. It seems very presumptuous of you to assume you can and anyone who can't is somehow an outlier.