I do not know much about mining, what are the hardware and software requirements for this project, can I mine with a laptop and how long does it take to break even?
Don't mine with your laptop. Mining means that your CPU, GPU or both will run continuously for days and days. Laptops are not designed for such use and will break. This stands true for any coin you want to mine.
About breaking even.. it will happen only when (if ever) Monero price will rise "to the moon and beyond".
Given that you want to mine with your laptop too... you'd better buy Monero if you want some. It's cheaper than your laptop anyway