Book knowledge? I couldn’t disagree more with what you just said. We’re talking the bare bone basics here.

I know that typing “google.com” immediately reaches out to your DNS server to get the actual IP Address (or whatever)

Or whatever? Wtf? What do you mean? Like which part confuses you? Do you think you’re missing a step somewhere or are you questioning whether DNS gets you the IP Address?

My general duties have never required me to go this deep

So... basically you’re a “I can ping it, it’s not the network” kinda guy?

what you’re trying to get out of the interview is weighing the propspects personality

No the fuck it isn’t, the purpose of the interview is to determine if hiring this guy is going to make your life easier, or if you’d regret it! And to see if they bring any real value to the company.