I also did CS competitions in college, but I always felt they over-stressed speed. They are for quick problem solvers, who are also comfortable with the languag

I also did CS competitions in college, but I always felt they over-stressed speed. They are for quick problem solvers, who are also comfortable with the languages the competition accepts. However, the way I see it, merely being sharp and knowing a language well isn't good enough to be a good programmer. Programming to me is a strange mixture of problem solving, technical knowledge, design, writing, and typing and a good programmer is good at all of them (throw English in there as well if you're not a native speaker). Problem solving and typing are things they teach you to get a CS degree, and it's what those competitions measure, but most of our submissions were really poor code, even by my standards at the time. [Edit] Add discipline to my long list of essential virtues for a good programmer. Discipline is a big one.