You are saying loud and clear you assess how good an engineer is fit for a role literally judging part of personal life based on your own (100% unbiased, right?) inference process.
No I didn't say anything like that, and to be honest, I don't generally ask such a question. However, in some cases, for example if you are a Junior, it's interesting to know how you learn, what drives you, etc. A book, a course, whatever, can give an idea. I mean, sure you can lie, you can fake all the certificates you want, but then eventually you'll join the company and there is the probation period. If you are not someone that likes to learn, it comes up relatively quickly. I think it's a fair question to ask, nothing to base the entire decision on.
I find it funny that I received a lot of criticism for this, when companies out there are still giving people BS riddles and "find the leaf with the value 'x' in a binary tree in O(logn)", or whatever crap they ask, to assess how good an engineer is, however, asking for how someone learns, how updated someone is, etc., is a something you should not take into account, while I find this very important, because it shows an important aspect of the person's attitude.
I think that we should stop hiring coders, and we should start hiring people. And people have interests, such as reading, fishing, etc.
I find it funny that I received a lot of criticism for this, when companies out there are still giving people BS riddles and "find the leaf with the value 'x' in a binary tree in O(logn)", or whatever crap they ask, to assess how good an engineer is, however, asking for how someone learns, how updated someone is, etc., is a something you should not take into account, while I find this very important, because it shows an important aspect of the person's attitude.
I think that we should stop hiring coders, and we should start hiring people. And people have interests, such as reading, fishing, etc.