I was asked that question during an interview for a technical role at Microsoft. Granted, it was 13 years ago at this point, but they did really ask stuff like that, and probably still do.
You can still see them in some places I believe. I've heard anecdotally that Microsoft is still a fan of them.
I should add that my personal experience contrasts with yours - I did a lot of interviews around 2004 and got asked riddle-type questions by one, maybe two, people. My memory is that they mostly died with the original dot-com boom.