I think you'd be surprised the percentage of people who would fail to answer these (remembering how many can't answer fizzbuzz). I wouldn't read the answers to

I think you'd be surprised the percentage of people who would fail to answer these (remembering how many can't answer fizzbuzz). I wouldn't read the answers to them as any measure of real expertise, just you're talking to someone who knows their way round a database and can apply the basics - you'd be shocked how many people who "know" SQL can't use GROUP BY (even when prompted). For a lot of people SELECT, FROM, WHERE is SQL. In terms of "what would you do if" type questions - they're often no less prone to book answers. What you really want is "give me a specific example of when this happened to you and how did you behave" as they're more likely to test real experience. Sure people can lie but when you start digging into it few people are good enough to continually make up exact details on the spot without getting suspiciously vague (or having behaved in a suspiciously perfect manner).