Any interview question is pointless if you can't objectively judge its answer, or at least there has been no study able to prove their effectiveness. You can us

Any interview question is pointless if you can't objectively judge its answer, or at least there has been no study able to prove their effectiveness. You can use it to test for social skills, but for that you could talk about anything really. If you want to get good at interviewing then you should decide beforehand exactly what questions you will ask all candidates and you should rank all answers for the questions. If their answer isn't a part of your ranked ones then it doesn't count, don't give points for effort and don't give hints unless you have decided beforehand to give the same hints at the same times to all candidates. This might seem too rigid, but it is the only way to not get your judgement overwhelmed by your initial impression of the candidate. Now, try to apply that to this question "Are you a good programmer?", how would we rank the answers? Is a plain "yes" better than a plain "no"? This could get really interesting results! By selecting for people who answer "yes" you could build a confident workforce while selecting for "no" could get you a humble one. Is this useful? Maybe, only you can answer that question.