Definitely the case in classes like that. Also a really obvious sign if you ace homeworks and get a 40% on an exam.

In my CS program, I ended up having at least half the grade be from projects and labs that I watched so many people cheat on. I'll even consider being the dead-weight in a group a form a cheating, but maybe that's too far.

Those same folks really struggled during interviews in their last semester (this was during a very friendly job market). I imagine that the majority of them are also dead weight on their teams these days.

It's a shame. You're cheating yourself of your own education, which can be quite expensive here in the US.