I usually start by asking how you make variables "private" within classes. That seems to tell me if they understand something about the design of the language and it's a quick filter to tell if they know something about the syntax.
The other question that I use is asking about 3rd party libraries that they have found useful. That can lead into some good questions about what they like about those libraries and what they dislike. That question helps me understand whether they've thought at all about how to design in Python. If I can't get a good conversation started with either of those, I'll ask what they don't like about Python, to see if they've actually used it to solve a real problem, or if they've just read the tutorial. As always, the best interview questions are open-ended, and give the candidate some room to really show their stuff (or give them enough rope to hang themselves). -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
