took the panel through my thought process on a bug I couldn't actually solve and got the offer anyway

Hit a wall on the coding question with fifteen minutes left and knew I wasn't going to land the optimal solution in time. Switched to just narrating everything I'd tried, why each approach failed, and what I'd check next with more time. Recruiter told me later the interviewer flagged that specific stretch as the strongest signal of the whole loop. Still would've rather solved it.