Well, that escalated quickly! :hehe:
I read your epic post(s), so I figured I would chime in too.
Jeff Moden (1/31/2015)
The real question behind every question that an interviewer asks is "What does this person actually know and what will (s)he bring to the table if we hire him/her"? Expounding on such simple questions will demonstrate that you not only know your stuff but that you've actually used them and that you can communicate that knowledge, as well.
I have to disagree with this. I get what you're saying for sure. BUT, big BUT here, sometimes you can come off as a complete snob or know-it-all when you go that detailed or even that long into simplistic questions.
If you can get around that bad judgement of character, you can also risk running the interviewer out of time where they cannot fully evaluate you as a potential candidate. This is actually common advice across all industries and positions that has been given for a few years now.
Regardless, I've experienced simple questions like that in my past as a new guy to SQL Server. I think my last one is whether or not I knew what a CTE was. I just smiled and said, "Yeah, I know common table expressions and use them all the time." Then I shut my trap. The Interviewer then asked without skipping a beat what the basic syntax was and I told him. He then asked how I used it in practice. This is where I used some more time to go into even more detail based on my own work experiences using common table expressions.
As someone who has a big mouth who runs off the beaten path all the time, I could have went in on this guy as soon as he asked me about what CTE stood for. But I didn't. I figured if wanted to know more he would ask and he did.
That's just my opinion though. I kept it simple and fun. Most of my interviews in the past outside of the database world have been pretty much the same. I actually focus more on my fun attitude and outgoing personality most of the time because I'm not applying to be a master at SQL (which I almost always say to the interviewer that I'm no master, but I love SQL and growing in knowledge every day). I'm applying to be a team player, someone is able to learn from my work and someone who knows enough to succeed or better. 😎