I went through five interviews and passed all the technical stages, including coding and system design, but the later HR rounds felt off. I was asked things like naming three negative traits, and then told I wasn’t “professional enough,” which didn’t make much sense given I’d already cleared the earlier rounds. When I pointed that out, it was taken as me being cocky, which wasn’t my intention at all. It also felt like they were trying to downplay my experience to justify why my salary expectations didn’t fit, instead of just having a straightforward conversation about them not willing to pay.