In competitive programming, multidimensional arrays are commonly used in problems that involve grids, matrices, or tables. Efficient handling of multidimensional arrays requires consideration of memory usage and access patterns. Start by declaring only the required dimensions to avoid excessive memory usage. When possible, use one-dimensional arrays and index calculations to mimic multidimensional arrays, as this can save memory and improve access times. Accessing elements in a row-major or column-major order, depending on how the array is stored, also reduces cache misses and can improve performance. For large multidimensional arrays, avoid initializing each element if default values will work, as initialization can be time-consuming. Familiarity with these techniques can help you manage multidimensional arrays efficiently, enabling faster access and reducing memory usage, which is crucial in high-performance competitive programming.