I read an article today that listed some basic questions about web development:

1. Describe how POST data was submitted to a server by a browser.

2. Explain a number of HTTP status codes (except maybe 404 and 500).

3. Explain SOLID or name a design pattern.

4. Explain ways to improve a page load speed or user experience.

The author says "if you can’t answer the questions above there are a lot of people who wouldn’t think of you as a Senior Web Developer."

My questions are:

1. How relevant are these questions in respect to real life web programming and scalability?

2. How true is that statement? In other words, do you consider this knowledge a requirement to be considered a Senior Web Developer?

3. I was able to answer all the questions, too easily it seemed, so I'm wondering whether it is effective to use these or similar questions to screen developers rather than asking them to write sample code.