AI Contest: ChatGPT vs Tabnine – A Comparative Study on Programming Assistance

This report presents a systematic comparison of two AI-powered programming tools—ChatGPT and Tabnine—in the context of competitive programming. Using problems from the 2024 USACO, the study evaluates each model's capabilities across metrics such as code accuracy, completeness, efficiency, and user experience. ChatGPT, known for its conversational and reasoning skills, is compared against Tabnine, a lightweight IDE-integrated tool known for code autocompletion. While ChatGPT demonstrated higher overall correctness in problem-solving, Tabnine showed strength in syntactically accurate code generation. This work highlights the trade-offs between full-solution LLMs and inline assistants and provides insights for students, educators, and developers on selecting the right AI tool for specific programming needs.