Asking someone to calculate the mean of a group of numbers is so basic that it's admitting that your prescreening process to that point is broken. I hope we're

Asking someone to calculate the mean of a group of numbers is so basic that it's admitting that your prescreening process to that point is broken. I hope we're talking about Zoom interviews and you're not actually bringing people into a physical location before asking that question. Assuming your process isn't broken, there's a psychological risk to asking a qualified person a question that is excruciatingly basic. If they know it's a question only a fool or liar would get wrong, then a momentary blank can lead to an anxiety spiral. I think even the first question should be plausibly challenging. I also don't understand why you're letting someone spin out for an entire interview on a simple question. Are we talking like half an hour or more? Maybe just let them try for a couple minutes and then pull back, give them a breather if they look stressed, and gently confirm that they've done actual hands-on programming in the past. Maybe their bootcamp misled them, or their previous job was a project manager sort of thing. Bad fit, sorry we didn't catch this earlier, best of luck to you.