Phone Interview:

1. [Valid-Palindrome] Was able to come up with a optimal solution
2. [Largest-Perimeter-Island] Talked about how I would approach the problem and the interviewer liked it. I didn't have enough time to write the whole code. I was able to write most of the code and just had to check whether it's on the boundary but ran out of time. Thought this would be an instant reject, given the Facebook's bar. But got the good news the next day that I would be moving to onsite

Onsite:

Round 1 [Coding]

1. Local Minimum Similar to this but instead of local maximum, find local minimum
2. Not on leetcode but similar to Alien Dictionary and Course-Schedule-II. Less complex than those and had to build an adjacency list.
   I finished it on time and was able to go over the testcases as well. Interviewer seemed happy with my approach

Round 2 [Coding]

1. Kth largest element. Interviewer asked if I already know the problem. I tried to fake that I haven't seen it before, but I think the interviewer knew I was faking it. I gave all the solutions from brute force to optimal. No reactions from him. Coded it optimally and dry ran it
2. Trapping rainwater. Same thing as before, I faked it, but I think I was able to convince that I was seeing it for the first time. Because of that I deliberately solved it in O(N) time and O(N) space (Not optimal). But towards the end the interviewer seemed happy I guess (Not sure though)

I realized I should have approached it like “ I've seen something similar, but let's see if I can solve this" or something similar.
Anyway, why didn't I tell? There was a huge debate regarding this on TeamBlind and just to give you the gist:

1. These FAANG companies have unreasonable expectation to complete 2 Medium/Hard difficult questions in the span of 40 minutes

2. What if the alternate question I get is a difficult question and I am not able to solve it? They are not going to consider that I knew the optimal solution to the previous question

3. It's my blood, sweat and hard work that I've put into my preparation to know and to be able to solve those questions during the interview. And if luck is favoring me, I cannot put all that in vain and blurt out that "Yes, I've seen this question before!"

4. And if interviewer expects me to solve an unseen question, then ask an unseen question and not directly from leetcode. You shouldn't expect someone to not study for something and come up with an answer instantly out of thin air in some 20 minutes. Maybe I would have received red flag here I guess

Round 3 [Product Design]

Design a translation API, like google translate, I think this round went terrible. Was able to come up with something that the interviewer liked but only during the last couple minutes and couldn't cover the breadth of the topic. The interviewer was very patient and helpful, gave some hints along the way and stopped me from going off-tangent occasionally

This might be the primary reason for the rejection

Round 4 [Behavioral]

Questions revolved around Why Facebook, leadership principles, conflict, challenging task, critical feedback etc.
The interviewer arrived 5 min late, kept yawning the whole time. And that guy was the manager (SMH). Highly unprofessional. But seemed to like my answers I suppose.

---Decision----

Ten days after, received an email from the recruiter saying that they would not be moving forward. I asked for feedback but didn't hear back.
I was satisfied with my performance but also realized that I need more practice and preparation.

And to everyone who is interviewing including myself...

“The curtain will rise again in the second act!”