Completed my TPM L6 Interviews with FB / G

Want to share as much as possible with the blind community so someone else can benefit from this in the future.... Note, I'm not going to share my questions. Most of it is all found off the interwebs, educative, youtube, etc... anyways. Prep: I took 4 weeks off work, studied like my life depended on it (6-7 hours a day including weekends). Subscribed to the educative monthly package and focused on grokking / hacking the TPM interview. With Grokking I started off with the basics section... I used youtube to dig deeper into each section (e.g. 1 whole day on DB). When I got to system design, I was employing active learning (anytime I encountered a system design, I would go through the actual mock myself, then go over the design in grokking). As I did this, I found weaknesses / gaps in my understanding. That prompted more learning into specific components that I didn't really understand. Rinse and repeat. Eventually when I ran out of system design questions, I started looking around on the web... again active learning, dug deeper on material online to learn more. It was an exhausting but rewarding process. I mocked about 25 or so system designs by myself with FB tool (excalidraw). This helped me learn the tool and how it use it (less stress during the interview). I studied in the exact same conditions every single day, I interviewed in the same conditions. I also did about 5 mocks with various real people. Took their feedback and incorporated it in... getting better. In the end, I knew I was ready because I actually enjoyed the system design process. I started to find it fun and creative way to exercise my brain. Especially when discussing trade-offs and different designs or strategies. I conjunction, in between system design exercises, I also focused on my stories (using Amazon's LP) I created 3-5 stories for each section (just nuggets). Also practiced my tech retrospective 5 times and mocked with a friend. 2 days before, I stopped all studying and just leisured to let my brain relax. Just did very light review (1-2 hours total passively) FB: Finished 6 rounds overall. - 2 system design (product v. infra tpm) - I think I did well on both of these. - 1 tech retro - Didn't feel a good connection with interviewer. - 3 PM - I think I did well on these, good connection with all folks. Focused on stories where I failed, had conflict to show my skills. G: Finished 5 rounds overall. - 2 tech problem solving - These were pretty easy. I believe I did ok - 3 PM - I think I also did well on these. Good connection with all folks. As of today, I've heard nothing from either company. But I'm certainly anxious about results. I have interviewed with FB in the past (2017 and 2019) and Google (in 2019) and failed at all times. However, I can see why I failed my previous interviews... I feel like this time going in I knew I wasn't ready previously. In any case, will update this thread as a way to vent my anxiety and share it with ya'll! 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 Update 1 - Call back from FB with positive news (interview feedback was positive)🎉🎉🎉 Need to figure out the team situation now (since I interviewed for two roles) Update 2 - Initial contact with G recruiter (positive interview feedback) 🎉🎉🎉. FB has setup discussions with HM later in the week. Update 3 - Call with both FB and G today. FB confirmed L6 (Yaaay), G saying L5 (booo). G recruiter going to see if they can push for L6... Update 4 - Spoke with some teams at FB and G. FB work sounds exciting. Google work sounded /meh... still hoping for L6 from Google Update 5 - Google offer incoming (cleared HC L6 🙃). Facebook asking for one more interview to get level details. Update 6 - Completed a follow up Behavioral interview with FB. Now in waiting mode...😫😫 Update 7 - FB Recruiter confirmed I cleared HC for Infra L6 TPM!! 🎉 🎉 🎉 Now waiting on Product TPM HC (tomorrow) Update 8 - FB recruiter confirmed I also cleared HC for Product TPM. I decided to go with product. Update 9 - Offer from G, negotiations with FB (my real target). Update 10 - Received and accepted verbal offer from FB. Awaiting written offer to sign Final update - Signed written offer from Facebook! Old TC : 280k New TC : 425k (230k base, 20%, 600k RSU) + 50k sign-on