Not sure about the Java question actually. I'm pretty certain every Java programmer can answer this. Whether they can understand what you mean and recall it in

Not sure about the Java question actually. I'm pretty certain every Java programmer can answer this. Whether they can understand what you mean and recall it in a stressful interview situation is what you seem to be assessing here. Not sure if that's what you're after. This question seems to be targeted at weeding out people who never had to do with Java. Have you tried asking for code samples? We always do, if someone has nothing relevant to show, we give them a simple task to solve at their leisure. Has been quite useful both for weeding out non-programmers as well as for getting a rough idea of someone's skill level.