AI's Impact on Competitive Programming | Generated by AI
Question: Now that AI is so advanced at solving Codeforces problems, do contests still have meaning? People can easily cheat and get 3 or 4 problems done, right?
Answer:
Yes, contests still have meaning — but the landscape has changed significantly in 2025-2026.
AI (especially models like OpenAI’s o3 / o4 series) has become extremely strong at competitive programming:
- Top AI models reach ~2700-2800 Codeforces rating (top ~0.2-0.3% of humans, roughly rank 100-200 globally).
- They achieved gold-medal level at ICPC WF 2025 and very strong results at IOI-level contests.
- In many Div. 2 / Div. 3 / Div. 4 rounds, modern AI can solve 4–6 problems very quickly if given the statements.
This makes cheating much easier than before. Many participants now feed problem statements to AI (sometimes with minimal editing) and submit. In some recent rounds:
- A noticeable percentage (around 4% in top ranks in certain cases) of high placements came from detected AI cheaters who got skipped/rolled back.
- In easier contests, solving 3–4 problems with AI is trivial for anyone willing to cheat — you don’t even need strong coding skills anymore.
Despite this, contests are not meaningless for most serious participants. Here’s why:
- Pure enjoyment and personal growth remain the core value. Many people (probably the majority of active participants) do contests for fun, learning algorithms, training under time pressure, and the satisfaction of solving hard problems themselves. AI doesn’t take that away unless you let it.
- The rating still reflects human skill for honest participants — even if the absolute number is inflated/deflated by cheaters. If you keep improving, your delta stays positive over time (just from a different baseline than 2–3 years ago).
- Top-level human competition is still very meaningful. AI is not yet consistently beating the very best humans (e.g., tourist ~3900+ level) in all contest formats, especially on unusual / creative / implementation-heavy problems.
- Community & anti-cheat measures exist. Codeforces bans obvious AI cheaters (especially copy-paste style), rolls back ratings when large groups are caught, and has rules explicitly forbidding AI assistance during contests (including debugging with AI after failed submissions).
Realistic current situation (early 2026):
- Div 4 / Div 3 / easy Div 2 → heavy AI cheating, 3–4 problems is easy with AI, ratings somewhat inflated for cheaters.
- Hard Div 2 / Div 1 → AI is strong but far from unbeatable; creative / proof-heavy / heavy-implementation problems remain hard for current models.
- Honest participants often drop 100–400 rating points compared to 2023–2024 levels due to cheater inflation, but skill improvement still shows in performance.
Many strong coders now treat competitive programming more as:
- A fun puzzle-solving hobby
- Algorithm learning & interview preparation
- A sport-like activity with friends/community
rather than a pure rating chase.
Bottom line: If your goal is honest self-improvement, intellectual challenge, and enjoyment → contests are still very meaningful.
If your only goal is high rating / top ranks → yes, it’s much harder/frustrating now because of widespread cheating and AI capability.
Most people in the community continue participating because they love the process, not just the number.
References:
- Codeforces blog on AI cheating and top rank rollbacks (2026)
- OpenAI o3 model Codeforces performance discussion
- Codeforces rule restricting AI usage (2024, still active)
- ICPC 2025 AI performance claims