There are people who put in a couple of years. And even then, all that is useless if you don't get invited to an interview in the first place, or get ghosted along the way through the 5 - 7 stage process.
I have completely changed my life in order to get to live (legally) in a 1st world country and will put more than a year of preparation to hopefully pass the interview at Google, Meta or Microsoft. If I fail I guess I’ll probably go back to my home country and live cheaply
Sorry, I don't mean to pry as I don't know your full situation, but if you want to live in a 1st world country, there are much easier ways than an interview at Google/Meta.
I live in a western European country, and my cheap neighborhood is full of unskilled migrants, and they came here without being crack-shots at leetcode, I know that much.
I am already living in a 1st world country, just with a low salary, but at least writing software. I'm waiting for the permanent residency to start seriously interviewing everywhere and I am already on the leetcode grind
FAANG for me is just a dream because of the salary. I don't think there is anywhere in continental Europe where you can make well over €100k per year other than google/meta.
Overall I think positively of the 7-8 rounds of interview + leetcode grind. If it was just because of resume or credentials, I'm not so sure someone with a darker skin tone and clearly foreign sounding name like me would even get a chance to interview. I think tech is very empowering for us, "smart" people from the minorities, at least it gives us hope of fairness and objectivity
