How is competitive programming different from real-life programming?

You’re in the jungle. You’ve got a pocketknife. Someone asks you to kill a mountain lion. Anyone but a programmer would be inquiring “WTF is a MOUNTAIN lion doing in a JUNGLE?!”, but that’s really not what you’ve been trained to do as a programmer. You’re here to solve issues, not to question them. Years of training has taught you well. You use your