How a competition season actually runs
Most competition robotics teams follow a similar rhythm regardless of which league they're in. A new game or challenge is announced, the team studies the rules and scoring to figure out what strategy will actually win points, then moves into design, deciding what the robot needs to do and roughly how it will do it, before splitting into build, wiring the electrical systems, machining or assembling the mechanical structure, and writing the control software. From there it's a repeating loop of testing and iterating: run the robot, find what breaks or underperforms, fix it, and run it again, right up until the competition deadline forces a stop.
Larger teams often split into sub-teams for mechanical, electrical, and software work, with a small group handling strategy, scouting other teams, and driving during matches. Smaller teams do the same work with fewer people wearing more hats, but the underlying workflow, design, build, test, iterate, is consistent across nearly every competition described in this course, from FRC to RoboCup.