Question

Can I excel in competitive programming even though I'm not majoring in CS?

Answer 1

Sure - your university courses aren’t really going to have much in common with competitive programming, no matter if it’s CS or not.

There are two main reasons why most strong contestants are studying CS or similar areas:

• People who are interested in stuff like competitive programming are often interested in things like Computer Science or Applied Math, so they enroll in corresponding programs.
• When you already have a lot of people around you doing this kind of stuff, it is much more likely that you’ll get interested as well. Some folks only start participating during their university years, and eventually become quite good at it.

I got some good news for you: people with CS background don’t really have much advantage over you; sure, they already know some fundamentals - but the stuff that they learn as part of CS curriculum is far from what is needed to actually excel. In the end it boils down to spending lots of time studying and practicing on your own.

You may also check this CF thread for some examples of contestants majoring less mainstream subjects.