40 hours seems low to me if one wants to enter FAANG. Even if you’re familiar with the process and have prepped before. I’d expect 100 hours minimum for most candidates. Only exception would be those who interview regularly, do competitive programming regularly, and those who have to do algorithmic work regularly.
Most people I know spend nights and weekends prepping for at least a month to a quarter.
I'm obviously biased because I don't consider FAANG to be a goal at all, either as a stepping stone or end game. There are much better things in life than a lot of money.
> There are much better things in life than a lot of money
Sure - but if you want to live in silicon valley, you will have to join FAANG or have startup riches (much more difficult) to have a "normal" life that you'd have elsewhere. You're not going to own a house in good school district with startup income.
If you live in BFE then whatever - maybe the 100%+ raise in income wouldn't affect your lifestyle. For most of us in SV, it has a very substantial increase in quality of life.
I did it over 4 weeks. I have two kids, so I spent about 1-2 hours per day. I usually did some reading or a couple leetcode problems in the morning before starting work, and a couple in the evening. Honestly, once you do about 20-30 problems, they start to feel the same. I found that if I treated each problem like an interview and slowly walked through a solution (versus just diving into code and mashing Compile over and over until I get it), the problem ends up being easier.
OK, so taking the usual programmer's working hours then add 10 hours a week to that. That's some opportunity cost there, just to be able to jump through a hoop that has little to no bearing on a real world programming career past the intern/junior developer level.
Most people I know spend nights and weekends prepping for at least a month to a quarter.