I think there is a very large gap between being able to answer that interview question effectively and having decent understanding of how to not misuse your ORM

I think there is a very large gap between being able to answer that interview question effectively and having decent understanding of how to not misuse your ORM. Specifically with ORMs, It does seem that a lot of devs don't understand or care about the generated SQL... but that question was way above the knowledge level I would expect/want out of someone IMO.