I've interviewed and approved people for hiring who probably did not know the actual difference between a char and a string. And they've done more than a TODO MVP. They were great employees. For python dev work you really don't need to know about that, since it doesn't have a dedicated char type. They could probably answer questions about Django and RabbitMQ that OP couldn't.
But I'm assuming OP is hiring for a lower-level language role where that knowledge is necessary. I've interviewed people with similar levels of incompetence. Again for that Django role, people who did not know the difference between GET and POST. I'm amazed they made it past the first phone screen with our hiring manager. And I'm curious how bad the people who did not pass the phone screen were.
