Can a tabaxi rogue with the Criminal background start with 8 skill proficiencies?

Question

Assuming:

If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead. (PBR, p. 36; PHB, p. 126)

A Tabaxi Rogue with the Criminal Background has the following skill proficiencies:

• Racial (Tabaxi): Stealth and Perception
• Class (Rogue): Four from Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth.
• Background (Criminal): Deception and Stealth.

With this in mind I'm looking at a build with the following proficiencies:

1. Stealth (racial)
2. Perception (racial)
3. Acrobatics (class)
4. Intimidation (class)
5. Persuasion (class)
6. Investigation (class)
7. Deception (background)
8. Sleight of Hand (background/Dex substitute for Stealth)

Is this valid by RAW?

Answer 1

Yes: those proficiency choices are supported by RAW

From the Basic Rules, and the same section in the PHB:

Proficiencies

If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead. (Basic Rules, p. 38)

Thus you can pick the other background skill proficiency to make up for an overlap/duplicate. Your 8 skill proficiencies, as you presented, is supported by RAW.

Additional point on customization

You can customize a background per the PHB/RAW

Customizing a Background

You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds. You can either use the equipment package from your background or spend coin on gear as described in chapter 5. (PHB p. 125).

I have found, from both sides of the table, that a collobrative workup of the background/back story between DM and player makes for a good fit between the player and the campaign.