A linked list is a pretty elementary data structure. That being said, these questions seem like they're for a job writing client software on Windows some time before .NET existed.
Of course, way back in the dark ages when I wrote VB for client Windows apps I was all "lets keep this nice and simple, nice and simple.... arrrrrrghhh, why doesn't this POS language do what I want?! HULK SMASH", and then I'd break out the Win32 APIs and hit it with the big guns.
I feel a little sorry for the 'normal' VB programmers, because they'd be following my code and then BLAM it'd disappear into hyperspace, and re-emerge and something magical† would have happened.
It's worth noting that Python has just one linear structure - lists* (Ruby avoids lists and just has arrays). Now, they're actually much fancier under the hood, which is why you can get away with not having a bunch of choices, but it's the approach of "Oh hey, I want to store a bunch of stuff in a sequence of some sort - why should it matter how that's implemented?".
Now, I happen to agree with you that it's important to know how a basic linked list works. Beyond that, though, is far less important to some people than others.
* Okay, I lied. Halfway through writing this I remembered tuples (duh!), and I'm sure someone is going to point out several other things I've missed.
