Absolutely possible and probable! My son sometimes does this without realizing it. If a teacher asks an easy question he tries to find out what she really wants to know and why she's asking this and what the right answer might be. The clincher was when the principal told me that he didn't know his math facts because when she asked him what 5X1 was, he couldn't answer. He was 11 years old and in a gifted school. Needless to say, I was speechless for so many reasons. I did NOT say "You are a principal of gifted kids and you seriously believe that he doesn't know the answer. You can't imagine any other reason that he might not answer this including being offended, knowing that he's in "trouble" and doesn't want to make it worse, trying to decide which answer will make her go away."
Instead we've been working with our son on communicating his thoughts more.
