Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think for some people, they treat it like the daily crossword. For seniors, I've known a few that would do problems in a different language so they can get some basic exposure to it. Eg. If you program node js all day, you'd do the daily problem in kotlin or rust.
> For seniors, I've known a few that would do problems in a different language so they can get some basic exposure to it. Everyone including myself who does similar things of experimenting with different languages, do so with "real" (not sure what else to call it) programs on our machines for some purpose. Maybe recreate something else we did recently, or try it for that one specific use case we saw it potentially go…
There are large communities on the internet for solving competitive programming problems. Checkout Topcoder, Codeforces, etc. They have their own subculture and the regular winners are celebrities in that subculture. These people aren't solving these problems to get a job or interview with FANG or anything. They just do it as a sport. Like playing Chess or Scrabble.