My pro-tip if you want one of these jobs and are not great at leetcoding, try to get another role at the company and then transfer over.

Apply as a data analyst, theres no leetcoding, you just need to demonstrate sql knowledge and experience working with the business. And faang data analysts are paid as much as many non-faang engineers.

Once you are in, you will be working with engineers, just do a good job, and express interest in working on the software team. The bar will be much much lower than an external candidate.

I would say 20-25% of engineers at these companies come from a non-traditional route like this.