I assume there is more context here, so out of curiosity, why do you consider that example “cheating”? Was the competition friend a low level engineer who stole

I assume there is more context here, so out of curiosity, why do you consider that example “cheating”? Was the competition friend a low level engineer who stole and leaked information, or was he in the competition’s leadership and agreeing to share solutions? Is there a rule at either company, or law that was broken?