There are lots of programmers globally, the top few percent is probably on the order of a couple of football stadiums worth of people. You are probably closer to that then you suspect.

You really don't need to be the absolute top. Grind leetcode for a month.

I used to think that Microsoft/Google/etc only hired amazing super-geniuses and I could never walk among their hallowed halls. It turns out, though, whiteboard coding is a skill you can develop just like most skills. The evil logic puzzles they used to ask at Microsoft are a skill you can improve as well, but hopefully you won't run into those.

This probably feels great to say... but in reality 99.99% of developers will never be anywhere near the standard for Google even if they waste years grinding at Leetcode.

I also disagree. If you are able to pass leetcode style test you have a very good chance at getting into a FAANG. It seems to be all they really care about.

Disagree.