Well, in their defense (Google/Amazon/Facebook etc), a team leader or any other particular person cannot interview 500 applicants, so either more people are interviewers or they are way more specific with initial resume (which can be fake to a big extend).
I don't like algorithm questions either but at least they optimize by time, the alternative is to have people in for a few days, or spend a day doing chat interviews and risk getting a bullshitter.
> a team leader or any other particular person cannot interview 500 applicants
While, yes, it often takes interview more than one, and often several people, to find a desirable candidate — it's not that high. Given that any candidate will see probably around 4 interviewers, I don't think asking that the manager interview is that big a deal. I have to agree with that part of the article (though I disagree with it on the whole): meeting your manager-to-be is important. (And I don't think one understands this until one has a bad manager.)
In a prior job, we would also omit the manager interview if it was certain the candidate wasn't going to be a pass.
They don't need to interview 500 people for their generic jobs. Filter people early based on CV and some phone screens and then talk to a couple people and select someone reasonable.
I don't like algorithm questions either but at least they optimize by time, the alternative is to have people in for a few days, or spend a day doing chat interviews and risk getting a bullshitter.