Advent of Code: With 25 tricky challenges towards Christmas
For the tenth time now, the Advent of Code is attracting visitors with daily coding puzzles wrapped up in nice, short stories.
(Image: Erstellt mit KI (MIdjourney) durch iX-Redaktion)
Advent of Code starts on December 1 with tricky programming challenges. The virtual Advent calendar is opening its doors for the tenth time this year.
Eric Wastl launched the event in 2015 and still creates the puzzles single-handedly. The tasks from the Advent of Code have since found their way into various other university challenges and exercises.
25 doors with double puzzles
Each day offers a two-part puzzle, with the second part only appearing after the first part has been solved correctly. The challenges are packed into short stories that are the same for all participants. In the first Advent calendar, the code had to help Santa find the right floor in a huge house to deliver his presents, among other things, and the Christmas elves needed a program to calculate how much wrapping paper they needed to order.
(Image:Â Advent of Code (Screenshot))
However, the content of the actual puzzles is different for everyone, so solutions cannot simply be copied.
Participation is not tied to a specific programming language, but can be done in any language. Modern computers are also not required: according to Wastl, the code for each solution runs in a maximum of 15 seconds on ten-year-old hardware.
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Some organizations and companies use the Advent of Code for additional incentives. JetBrains, for example, is offering prizes for solving the tasks in Kotlin, and Deno is handing out goodies for using its JavaScript runtime. There is now a virtual merchandise stand for Advent of Code.
Please no ChatGPT and Co.
If you want to compete with others and solve the puzzles particularly quickly, you can try to get a place on the global ranking list.
The description of the competition includes an FAQ with some rules, many of which have also existed in recent years. However, one important rule did not yet exist in 2015: "Please do not use AI / LLMs (such as GPT) to automatically solve the daily puzzle until the leaderboard is filled."
(Image:Â Advent of Code (Screenshot))
Traditionally, the first door of this year's Advent calendar can be opened at 6 a.m. German time on December 1. If you want to get in the mood, you can find the tasks from previous years in the Advent of Code archive.
(rme)
