Wow... that's out there. Intuitively it makes sense: I would want to work with someone that chooses to help others around them when presented the opportunity. But then again, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking away points from a candidate if they didn't help - maybe they were stressing over the interview they were about to have, etc. and didn't want to distract themselves.

> maybe someone else can verify it

I'm really curious to see if anyone has implemented such a test over and over again.. The biggest challenge right now with changing up the interview process is validating the change is tough. You need to use the same challenge in a lot of interviews, and track how well the candidates did over time at their jobs, if hired, in order to be able to verify. Tough to do for a startup.