Is it faster to switch weapons quickly instead of waiting for the reload animation to end in CS GO?

While reloading weapons in CS GO it can be seen that the ammo counter gets reset while the animation is playing, more exactly when you finish inserting the magazine. Doing a weapon switch in that moment doesn't cancel the reload so technically the weapon is reloaded when you go back to it.

Question: would a fast weapon switch (default Q) prove to be faster than waiting for the reload animation to end? Or is there a rule set in the game to make sure this does not happen?

You can't shoot while the animation is playing, so the weapon switch would give you an advantage if it were indeed faster. It's a bit unclear to me if the switch is faster for the weapons I've tried. It seems so, but not by a lot.

Double swap a weapon isn't faster than a normal reload, even if the animation didn't finish.

Reloading vs. quickswitching

In earlier versions of CS, it probably was faster, but it's not valid for CS GO. Quickswitching is not faster than the regular reload. It helps in keeping your fingers busy and maybe with a placebo effect, but that's just about it.

Quickswitching for AWPers also helps because after you take a shot, you can always just tap 'last used weapon' (usually Q) only once in order to finish your opponent off with the secondary weapon.

Source: Global Offensive Reddit

All the weapons have an invisible "ready to fire" countdown when you start the reload animation. It does not help at all. Though this does help out quite a lot when using any sniper rifle so that way you do not have to cycle through the zooming to get unzoomed.