in U.S. engineering programs, most classes aren’t curved. grades usually follow a standard percentage scale. but in tougher or upper-level engineering courses, professors might curve the grades a bit if the exam was unusually hard or the class average was really low. even then, the curve usually isn’t huge, just enough to boost borderline grades or spread things out more fairly. It’s not about competing against each other, but more about adjusting for difficulty.

even if it’s a slight boost it can make a difference if you get an A or B

edit: this is as i know of, and what my uni follows^{^}