I've been interviewing with companies recently and it's interesting to see how some places just completely ignore these types of questions. My guess is that the

I've been interviewing with companies recently and it's interesting to see how some places just completely ignore these types of questions. My guess is that there's a bit of self selection when interviewing. Some places don't looks for passion because they themselves may not be passionate. On the other hand, you do want to make sure they know how to program. Talking about side projects and areas of interest may bias the interviewer when they really just want to know how technically competent you are.