Note:It is possible that the title may not fit the content of the question.
Out of
<a> Participating in coding competitions
and
<b> Taking up some projects in specific (programming) languages
what do you think makes a better programmer ?
My Opinion:The second one,because programming contests like those on CodeChef have problems that simply rely on algorithms of some sort(if not,otherwise). When taking up some sort of project,I have come across more varations ,I mean a combination of a variety of techniques and not just focusing on input and output sets of the program.
Having said that,I would like to know how other members of the developer/programming fraternity think about it?