I mentor a lot of people looking to find new jobs, and one of the things I encourage them to do is related to this phrasing. When someone asks you, "Have you e

I mentor a lot of people looking to find new jobs, and one of the things I encourage them to do is related to this phrasing. When someone asks you, "Have you ever programmed in X language", or "Have you ever used Y technology", I encourage them to not just stop at "No, I haven't", but rather go- "No, I haven't worked with that language, but it's a fairly similar language to Q, so I'm familiar with a lot of the design patterns you use when programming in that type of language. I'll need to pick up the syntax and learn from the team how you use the language, but I'm confident I can pick it up." So, that's how to respond to it as an interviewee. If you're a company and you're interviewing candidates, you're likely bouncing good prospects who aren't good at interviewing because you're asking the question too close-ended. A better question is: "At Acme Corp, we tend to use Scala whenever possible. What has been your experience so far in your career with programming in functional languages such as Scheme, Lisp, Scala, etc.?" Instead of getting a binary answer, Yes / No, you're now asking an open-ended question that gives the interviewee an opportunity to share their experience, rather than feel gutted because they lack direct experience in X. Some people don't need to be asked questions in this format, but some people take questions very literally and won't elaborate despite having a totally reasonable response.