Twice it had happened. F5 hr (first time) or third party consultants (second time) first take ctc and expected ctc over phone, then start scheduling interviews. After successfully clearing 3-4 rounds of discussions, HR will call and ask for expected ctc and try to offer less than our current ctc (not sure how they expect anyone can accept ctc less than their current ctc) and they say it is crossing our range for the role. Firstly they know their range for role and our ctc and expected ctc then why do they waste others time and energy. Second time I clearly told recruiter that schedule the discussions only if they are fine with expected ctc. Recruit can reply to this review and can tell that my expectation is too high and unrealistic. For those people I had expected 8-10% over my current ctc.

The first round went fair. I was asked conceptual questions around kubernetes, work wise projects. One leetcode - easy question asked - to sort the values by positive values on even index and negative values on even index keeping the relative order of the array same. The next round went nowhere. The interviewer didn't switch on the camera. Asked fundamentals about trees, stacks(create stack with queues, create a stack structure with out using stack). I ANSWERED ALL OF THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE SUCH FUNDAMENTALS. The recruiter then called to share that the panel gave a negative fit because I don't know Golang. I repeatedly asked if there was a language restriction, and there was not even one time they said there was. It is such a bummer.

3 rounds of tech interviews. Fourth round was Hiring Manager followed by HR. The process was well planned and executed. It started with me getting a call from HR and then attending all the interviews over the weekend