Is Competitive Programming required for interviews?
Having been quite active in the interview preparation scene recently, I’ve observed that there is a lot of misconception around competitive programming in the context of interview preparation.
Competitive programming (CP), which is a mind sport, is often compared with the problem-solving, data structures and algorithms (PS/DS) interview round.
So I decided to write an article to clear these misconceptions.
Article Link: Is competitive programming required to do well in interviews?
tl;dr
CP may help you become a better problem solver and coder but it does not guarantee that you’ll perform well in a PS/DS round if you do not work on your data structures and algorithms fundamentals. Neither is it required for the interview if you already have decent problem solving and coding skills and have solid understanding of DS and Algo. Though it will definitely help you in getting to the solution faster and coding it quickly if you are good at CP.
So, the short answer is: It is not essential but is definitely something that we would encourage you to try and see if you like it.
Do let me know your thoughts.
My Background (LinkedIn):
- Ex-SDE II at Flipkart; Ex-SDE at Microsoft
- ACM ICPC regionalist (thrice; Rank: 23, 67 and 69)