Yes, that's a bad interview question. I guess they do not care about you knowing the precedences, but just use it as an easily tested proxy for your general knowledge of the language.
I had interviewers ask about compiler flags. That was even more dreadful. I said I knew Haskell, not that I knew GHC. (In the end, I could answer the question, but they felt so wrong.)
I had interviewers ask about compiler flags. That was even more dreadful. I said I knew Haskell, not that I knew GHC. (In the end, I could answer the question, but they felt so wrong.)