Competitive programming is fun because it can drive your skills, help you meet fellow programmers, give you career opportunities, and come with the thrill of victory and success. It’s not fun in cases where it can eat up your time, end in disappointing competition results, and impair your general coding skills.

Competitive programming is not a waste of time unless you despise doing it and fail to use it to your advantage. You can win prizes, meet other professional programmers, hone your skills, and learn tons of things from competitions. On top of that, it can open doors in your career by giving you networking opportunities.