Someone mentioned this the other day and I thought it was a mistake, but once they explained that SET told them to read up on TPWS for their interview it made more sense.
It would be unfair for them to not brief applicants and then ask questions on it, as it’s something an applicant shouldn’t really be expected to know about unless they’ve done some rules training before.
They are simply asking applicants to explain what they understand TPWS to be and what it’s intended for as far as I can tell, which seems reasonable (to be honest, it’s not the most technical of subjects anyway...). They’re not going to expect or want people to explain the inner workings of the systems and train-borne equipment etc. Just the basic purpose of it.
I’ve never been asked about it at a DMI either, but if I was asked to read up on the basics of it as I will be asked about it, I’d certainly advise doing so.
I was once asked about trailing points at an interview for a Depot Driver role, which I had no idea about as it was a technical question as far as I was concerned, and I wasn’t from an operations background. I wasn’t told I needed to know anything technical, so in that case and as an example, I’d deem that unfair. This scenario isn’t the same, as posted above.