What do you call it when you ask a question but you actually know the answer? [closed]

Solution 1:

A question where one does not want or need anyone to supply an answer is a rhetorical question.

The rhetorical device is either for the question to make its own point, because the question is left hanging for its hearers to consider, or to provide a pretext for its asker to answer it and make his point with that statement.

The rhetorical question is usually defined as any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks.

Gideon O. Burton, Silva Rhetoricae, Brigham Young University. Rhetorical questions

Solution 2:

It depends upon your motive for asking...

Perhaps Machiavellian - practising, or characterised by, (esp. political) expediency in preference to morality; unscrupulous, duplicitous; astute, cunning, scheming (OED).