Parity interview questions

After the initial screening with the recruiter, I was scheduled 2 live-code interviews plus a soft-skills one. Live-code was describe as "problem solving" and "DSA", though both where solving leetcode style problems. First one was to find the shortest path to traverse a maze (BFS), and second one was serialize/deserialize a binary tree. Third interview was "Soft skills: think culture & values". After those 3 rounds, the recruiter called me again for a short 5 minutes to tell me that they rejected me and gave me a bit of feedback. I passed the first interview, in the second and third one I failed. Trying to be neutral my results were: · 1rst live-code. I solved the BFS (though a small improvement was lacking to get the length of the path in a variable optimally) · 2nd live-code. I didn't practise this exercise and was confused at the beginning about the requirements, so it took me a bit longer to get started, but eventually got it right and implemented the serializer. So I mostly solved it, so the "failed" came from the fact I was not efficient and confident solving it. · 3rd soft-skill. I thought I was ok in this one, we spoke well, apparently (the recruiter told me later) I failed because I said that I had followed parity and he asked my what happened with the company last year (in terms of big news), and I couldn't answer that. Apparently you should never say that... I meant that every now and then I stumbled upon something about Parity (such as doing a course, or checking something on twitter), not that I was checking the news regularly and memorizing/writing down the events of the company. I would have preferred to get the news written in a mail but I always appreciate feedback, I found the results a bit strict since I didn't fail anything in an obvious way, but I understand they strive for the best signals in candidates and have high-standards. Not that I think it is an optimal way to find talent, but we all know how big companies are always inefficient in this (and many other) regards. Nothing to complain nor rate negatively, at the end just grateful they didn't get me because the base salary was 60K anyway, and it is not a company worth being stressed about for that amount.