While I can't speak for the OP, in that situation, I would take this to mean that they aren't sure of the skills they actually need so they're asking general questions that may or may not reveal whether or not we (the company and myself) are a good match.
Granted, if they ask a few of those and then jump right in with more specific questions I would just count that as the qualifier/anti-BS filter.
If I was only given general softball 100 series CS course questions I'd probably end up trying to wrestle more info about the position out of the interviewer unless I was really hard up for a job and was willing to put up with potentially unfulfilling work for a while.
Granted, if they ask a few of those and then jump right in with more specific questions I would just count that as the qualifier/anti-BS filter.
If I was only given general softball 100 series CS course questions I'd probably end up trying to wrestle more info about the position out of the interviewer unless I was really hard up for a job and was willing to put up with potentially unfulfilling work for a while.
Edit: Grammar