The problem is with requiring knowledge about a certain set of "esoterica". Your question is fine: it's open-ended, the interviewees can answer whatever they f

The problem is with requiring knowledge about a certain set of "esoterica". Your question is fine: it's open-ended, the interviewees can answer whatever they feel like (and you can assess their knowledge of the language to some degree), and ideally you get a nice little discussion going, that also covers other topics. On the other hand "What's up with that explicit keyword and constructors in c++?" is a pop quiz questions.