I took part in several competitions and while I didn't do as well as I would have liked, I did think they were useful in that they were definitely fun, I got to meet some interesting and likeminded people, some of whom I'm still in contact with, many years later, it was challenging and provided motivation to learn more programming techniques, improve my skills and it helped me learn new ways of solving problems. Sure, the problems weren't something you'd often encounter in the real world, but the experience and education was worth it.