Interview consisted of 4 rounds and a take home assessment, starting with lead programmer and technical director at first, followed by production head, HR, and CEO taking each of the round.
The process took nearly 2 weeks with all calls being virtual.
Candidate is assessed with multiple rounds of interviews, and they say depending on performance the pay is decided, yet in the end they base it on previous pay scale and say pay parity.
It's better to be consistent with the candidate's initial discussion while giving offer. It saves time on both ends.
My advice is do not put a false promise at initial talk when it's not being matched at the end even after all rounds performance is quite positive.