It took about 9-10 hours to put together and I had a friend help for half. Definitely impossible to assemble alone and you will need a power tool. Only after we'd finished the last step and put my keyboard into the keyboard tray did I notice that there is no opening for a keyboard cord. A desk with a built-in keyboard tray that can only work with a wireless keyboard?! Ridiculous - but after spending so many hours building it, no way was I going to take it apart. So I drilled a hole in the bottom and am using the desk. I like the size (though the drawers are tiny) and it looks very nice, but this is probably a one-apartment desk. The keyboard tray itself has a pretty poor design too. But I guess you get what you pay for. The desk is sturdy at least and it does look nice if you don't look too close.