So, to be fair to Google, I was not once asked anything like the train question nor was I asked to write a binary search in C then to read it out over the phone. I did implement a few things in Google docs, which is kind of ugly, but it wasn't anything ridiculous, and most of the functions were fairly short (20-30 lines).
They did, however, ask a whole bunch of conceptual questions, but I don't think this is all that surprising.
I'm an intern right now. Just today I saw Neil Fraser [1], who wrote MobWrite [2]. I shook his hand and thanked him, he's probably one of the reasons I actually managed to pass! My third phone interview had code in MobWrite, not Google Docs, and it was so much better.
I'm going to try to find a way to feed it back to HR, because it really is much easier to think about code when what you're doing looks like code.
That's awesome! I'll have to play with this, and suggest it whenever I hear the topic of coding interviews come up.
As a side note, if there's any chance of you being in the bay area this summer (Mtn. View specifically), I'd love to grab lunch with a fellow HNer. I'll be interning at Google starting early May and know a sum total of 0 people out in the area. If you're interested and possibly going to be around, my e-mail is on my profile page.
They did, however, ask a whole bunch of conceptual questions, but I don't think this is all that surprising.