I used to do competitive programming in high school and early university, but I stopped doing it mainly for lack of time. Most of what you learn from programmi

I used to do competitive programming in high school and early university, but I stopped doing it mainly for lack of time. Most of what you learn from programming competitions is not transferrable to business programming, but possibly some is. Maybe you'll see a case at work where dynamic programming might be super-awesome. Maybe you won't, but either way it's not going to hurt. There are be opportunity costs of course (i.e, because you're not spending your time elsewhere), but only you can judge that. My motto, if I had one, would be that learning is not a zero-sum game. Programming competitions are a form of deliberate practice not unlike cross-training for athletes.