Are programming competitions a good use of time?
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Programming competitions are fun. And we shouldn't just look at them as a means to an end. Yes, maybe you could spend your time better elsewhere, but you don't question what you're getting out of your hobbies, do you? You do them because you enjoy them. And isn't that what's important?
I would imagine the younger you are the more useful they would be
As someone who's never heard of a 'coding contest' what is this? Is this like Spec Work (ie Client: "I need a website built, i'm giving the concept to 5 devs, the one who builds the best home page gets the project..."?). Or is this like a e-sport?
If it's like an e-sport, what is the point/benefit?
No.
Now, are programming contests useful? Yes, but only up to a point. Solving contest problems is an excellent way to familiarize yourself with a ...You can become a good competitive programmer only by participating in short contests (2 to 2.5 hours). After a couple of long contests, you should focus on participating in as many contests as possible across platforms like CodeChef, Codeforces, AtCoder, etc.Taking part in competitive programming teaches you how to be more focused on the task and not only complete it quickly, but accurately. These skills are highly beneficial for any job, not just in coding.
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This was a really interesting read. I used to spend a lot of time entering competitions as a junior programmer. You're right, our time could be better spent elsewhere, but it depends on the outcome we want from participating in such competitions. For me, I saw it as a route to the job I wanted, and it got me there, but there were also other ways I could have got there. Like with any choice, you'd have to have two versions of you and have one do one thing and one do something else and then see which one had the biggest pay-off, but as there is only one of each of us, we'll always be stuck wondering whether any of our decisions were really the best way to get what we wanted.