[raj_m]

That's an interesting observation. So what you are saying is that if I make sufficient headway into the problem without providing the most efficient answer, it should be fine?

There are rumors that unless you are spot on perfect in Big 4 interviews, they wont advance you.

[sdflkd]

It all depends on the interviewer. Anyone claiming different is selling you bullshit. The purpose of the interview and how they are actually used in practice is all on the interviewer.

[perfmode]

It depends on the aptitude for problem solving that the interviewer observes in the process.

It's about understanding the computer science fundamentals in order to keep your code from burning up 1000's of cores due to asymptotically-poor characteristics.