Ask HN: Does competitive programming make you a better programmer?

Would you rather eat a cake made during a competition? because it seems like a good way to be eating egg shells.

While there may be merit in trying to solve a challenge in the shortest amount of time. Personally I prefer the advent of code style, a different challenges each day with a fun story to make it an enjoyable experience. The competitive programming and leetcode bent is the fast food of our industry.

A previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28274310

(Competitive programming is useless (kislayverma.com), 150 comments, Aug 23-2021)

No, but it'll save you from failing tech interviews.

Before anyone say it, coding interviews are stupid, but having a proper job (at a proper company, with proper career paths) is not.

Does competitive eating make one a better eater?

To answer that, first one must define “better.”

Better at what?