End of an era. Thank you! It was a blast.
Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
121–130 of 226 posts
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. 4 is in the name, not 25.
I thought it was meant to be like an Advent Calendar, which is normally 25.
Not in all traditions. E.g. in Germany Christmas Eve is typically the last day so you only get 24.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're forgetting about Halloween, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and the most recent Singles Day (11.11); the Commercial Calendar is steadily squeezing the Christmas Season into December and out of the rest of the year!
Commercial Halloween starts during October just after or parallel with October-fest. It ends before end of October because people buy things for an event before it starts. End of Halloween is when Commercial Christmas starts. There is no time for actual advent or winter calmness in general.
Wouldn't winter calmness be January or February, maybe March? You know coldest time in general on Northern Hemisphere?
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Commercial Halloween starts during October just after or parallel with October-fest. It ends before end of October because people buy things for an event before it starts. End of Halloween is when Commercial Christmas starts. There is no time for actual advent or winter calmness in general.
Wouldn't winter calmness be January or February, maybe March? You know coldest time in general on Northern Hemisphere?
I think you are right, that seems to be the case.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#125Whenever there's a change like this, my gut reaction is to grieve and try to imagine ways that things could be kept the same. After thinking, "maybe puzzles could be designed by a group instead of an individual and they could share the work," I then thought, "and couldn't an LLM help?" And with that, I had to remind myself: Advent of Code isn't about there being 25 puzzles, and so maintaining volume at all costs has…
Hate to be the... whoever I'm being right now, but names have meaning. It's the reason to have them in the first place. > Advent of Code isn't about there being 25 puzzles, and so maintaining volume at all costs has nothing to do with it. It's the Advent of Code. Not "Random late year event with no religious / commercial tradition connotations whatsoever" of Code. The 25 is there in the name. It's the whole point :).
You need to turn in your polish passport for publicly saying that the advent is 25, not 24 days ;P
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#126Whenever there's a change like this, my gut reaction is to grieve and try to imagine ways that things could be kept the same. After thinking, "maybe puzzles could be designed by a group instead of an individual and they could share the work," I then thought, "and couldn't an LLM help?" And with that, I had to remind myself: Advent of Code isn't about there being 25 puzzles, and so maintaining volume at all costs has…
I’ve been trying to design a puzzle for a game this year that humans can solve but LLMs can’t. I’ve come up with one, but it was hard work! It’s based around message cracking.
Just have to incorporate good judgement in some way.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#127I wonder if it would've felt more natural if the "part 2s" of the puzzles became separate days instead. (Still 12 days worth of puzzles, but spread out across 24 days, with maybe one extra, smaller, easier puzzle for the last day to relax)
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#128Last year was the first time I completed all 25 and I was looking forward to reprising that. It’s alright. I guess I could always try older problems.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#129Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#130I wonder if it would've felt more natural if the "part 2s" of the puzzles became separate days instead. (Still 12 days worth of puzzles, but spread out across 24 days, with maybe one extra, smaller, easier puzzle for the last day to relax)
I was thinking the same! This would be great , have a puzzle each other day. But i trust the organizers are going to do a great job and we will have fun either way.