I should clarify that I ask this during an initial phone screening. (Having HR personnel ask the question never seems to work because they don't know how to ev

I should clarify that I ask this during an initial phone screening. (Having HR personnel ask the question never seems to work because they don't know how to evaluate the response, which can vary and still be correct.) What I'm looking for is mention of the fact that Java is fully object-oriented and, these days, primarily used on the server side. (Though some mention of the history of -- and problems with -- applets is good too.) For JavaScript, some mention of AJAX, jQuery, Node.js, etc., are all helpful. Essentially I want to know if the person truly understands the pros and cons of each and when to use each, as opposed to just having a shallow understanding that "they're different languages". I'm still shocked at how many Web developers can't offer more than the the latter.