[killermonkeys]

I asked these questions until a year ago. Brain teasers were never ok. They are defined as things that require a single insight and/or domain knowledge and could be communicated in a few seconds.

"Monopoly" is a perfect example of a brain teaser and anyone using that would be treated pretty harshly by the committee that reviews interview feedback. Estimate questions are not: there's no expectation of a "right answer" and the important fact is the working.

Some programming questions border on brain teasers to non programmers but that doesn't matter because you are asking programmers and again, it's the working that matters.

Finally different roles get different types of interviews. I worked in PM and there were analytical (these questions), product (design a better x) and technical (basic engineering interviews). The behavioral type was not one I encountered in PM or eng but maybe used elsewhere.

[SilasX]

Are we thinking of the same "Monopoly" question? The one where you ask them to sketch out how they would program the game Monopoly? Because that's a lot more like an estimation question than a single-insight brain-teaser.

[killermonkeys]

No sorry the "man pushes his car to a hotel and loses his fortune" question from another comment.