I think it's a very good question. You're not just checking boxes and giving a score here, and if the interviewer is any good, it's not just about "how many cor

I think it's a very good question. You're not just checking boxes and giving a score here, and if the interviewer is any good, it's not just about "how many correct answers". The depth of each answer gives you a lot of information about the depth and breadth of the candidate's knowledge. It immediately lets you tell the complete idiot who has always copy-pasted without any understanding from the person who lives and breathes web standards. Since some of the questions are very esoteric, as you said, it lets you judge how the candidate deals with lack of knowledge. Do they make up some bullshit pretending to be confident (which could be a huge problem in a real project), or do they say "I don't know this one, but based on X I assume it's probably Y"?