There are a lot of negatively slanted replies in this thread who sound oblivious to how hiring works or sound like people who have justifiably been passed over.

There are a lot of negatively slanted replies in this thread who sound oblivious to how hiring works or sound like people who have justifiably been passed over. Even the phrasing of "what answers are they looking for?" sounds a little like you're viewing this as someone you're going up against, or intrusive questioning, or just hoop to jump through just to earn a paycheck instead of a conversation that could have benefits for you. Is salary alignment your only metric for accepting a job? Of course not. It goes the other direction too. Recruiters and hiring managers also don't just want someone who just matches the salary range, they want the best possible fit from the pool of candidates available to them. Even when it comes to money, some salary ranges are hard limits, others might be flexible for the right candidate. The recruiter probably knows which employer is which. Yes, obviously recruiters are not 100% vested in your career or becoming your buddy but they are financially motivated to be a decent match maker and you should hold the conversation in good faith (they don't get paid in full if you don't work out). Think of a job match as a radar chart, not just salary demand on a one dimension number line. Not having something thoughtful to say in response to these types of questions probably just means you're going to get tossed over to seat-filler jobs and not places willing to pay a premium for perfect fits because you're not giving them anything to work with. Trust me when I say that experienced recruiters have met all sorts and you have nothing novel or surprising to say in these early stage questions, even the average ones will figure you out pretty quickly.