Not strictly a software engineer, but a computer scientist (and so many other things), and an extremely smart person in general - worth reading even if you're not interested in academia.
Did they confirm the offer _during_ your interview?
If yes, then it was a dick move and you definitely dodged a bullet.
I'm asking because I know of some cases where the salary range was listed in the job posting, but after talking to the candidate, the company decided to offer them a number that was below the lower bound, saying that the level of the candidate not enough compared to what they had in mind when they were posting the job.
Not strictly a software engineer, but a computer scientist (and so many other things), and an extremely smart person in general - worth reading even if you're not interested in academia.