If you want to be a computer scientist, can competitive programming be helpful early on in your career? Competitive programming is a craze among many computer science and engineering students. Is competitive programming important to be a good computer scientist? Thank you.
All types of practice are valuable, and if competition pleases you, go for it. However, programming quickly and under pressure is more akin to industry than to academia, and may leave little time for theory. Therefore I'd not call competition "important" for formation in CS, rather it's one of a number of forms of structured programming practice.