

Ask HN: Worth of Algorithm Challenges and contests? - r15habh

I'm interested in knowing whether it is advisable for computer science students to spend their major chunk of time on the online judges practising programming(like Topcoder and codeforces) or it's more worth to develop a software or contribute to open-source ?
Note: I'm not asking from the perspective of job scenario. I'm asking from the perspective of being a better developer.
======
kd1220
They're what you make of it. Those problems are generally far removed from
what you would actually do at most tech companies. Regardless, if they're
complicated enough and you come up with a working solution, it does hone your
problem solving skills. Don't do it to be top on a leader board or to get an
interview.

Contributing to an open source project is also valuable, but in a different
way. Open source projects require you to navigate through bug lists, socialize
with other coders, read specs, analyze and repair a (mostly) functioning
system. Overall, it will help you gain perspective on creating software.

------
AjJi
Why not do both?

I think both activities require complementary skills.

In one hand, programming competitions will hone your problem solving skills,
ability to write bug-free code quickly while powering up your language and
algorithms skills. In the other hand, developing software and contributing to
open-source needs a different set of skills: patience, communication,
collaboration and so on.

