If they really had guts, they'd ask programmers to declare their background (years of experience, with that language, with static/dynamic typed languages, ...)

If they really had guts, they'd ask programmers to declare their background (years of experience, with that language, with static/dynamic typed languages, ...) and environment (private office / open floorplan / remote, music / silence / white noise, ...), and use this to settle once-and-for-all some basic questions the industry has had.