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Six no's! That's a strongly held opinion.

I don't really see the open ended nature of the question as being a problem. In fact that's kind of the idea - get people talking about what it means to be a good programmer, what makes a good programmer, why it is that they think they are a good programmer.

A good programmer probably should be able to have an effective discussion on the topic should they not?

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I'm not GP but I think you are both correct. What I personally dislike and would avoid as an interviewer is "Rate your [language] skills from 1-10". I've answered a "2" every time I've been asked that question, and it probably reflected poorly on me, oh well. Most people hiring would probably consider me significantly higher, but I honestly do believe there is a magnitude of difference between me and the top 1% of say, Ruby developers in the world.

Well put. I have been asked the same question in interviews. Any interview I gave myself < 8, I could see the interviewer was uncomfortable interviewing a 'newbie'. I am wary of saying anything over 8 because I feel there's no way you could learn everything about something. Not with the amount of information there is on language/paradigms etc

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