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Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

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Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#161

Post by misja111 »

wodenokoto wrote: post #113
TeMPOraL wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :).

Advent is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. 4 is in the name, not 25.

Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “arrival” or “coming.” It refers to the coming of Christ. There is no 4 in the name, no 24, 25 or whatever else.

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#162

Post by crote »

looperhacks wrote: post #108
TeMPOraL wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :).

> The 25 is there in the name. This largely depends on who you're asking? I don't know anyone who wouldn't consider 24 the course correct number of Advent, simply because that's the common number here (we celebrate Christmas on the 24th). So 12 makes perfectly sense, just do every second day. There are also many groups who don't start on the 1st of December, but on the first Sunday of Advent. And probably many others…

Advent calendars are used to count down the days. Doing one every other day defeats the purpose.

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#163

Post by Fnoord »

> If you're still stuck, maybe ask a friend for help, or come back to the puzzle later. You can also ask for hints in the subreddit.

Not sure why this is OK but prompt engineering isn't? If someone wants to test that skillset, let them be instead of asking 'please don't'. Especially given the competitive nature is now optional.

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#164

Post by Fnoord »

dangrie158 wrote: post #122
robertlagrant wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Winter Solstice is usually (not always) on 21th December.

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#165

Post by tialaramex »

porphyra wrote: post #142
klausa wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to turn in your polish passport for publicly saying that the advent is 25, not 24 days ;P

To be fair in the original Advent of Code the last day is just a freebie and not a real programming problem.

Right, mini-spoiler if you've never reached 50 stars for a year:

The 50th star is awarded for having the other 49 stars and then basically clicking OK I think. If you've been diligently solving them in order, it means you effectively get two stars for your final 49th puzzle of the year on Christmas Day, which makes sense because then the puzzles are very hard and a "normal" puzzle wouldn't leave much time for other Christmas Day activities. But if you're the sort of person who often gives up on a day and never comes back you may never have seen this because you never got to 49 stars.

You're not quite right that the Christmas Day puzzle is trivial - it's the first half of a maybe week 1 type difficulty puzzle, but there just isn't a second half:

Here's the puzzle text for last year's Xmas Day (if you are logged in you can play, but even without it will explain the puzzle it just won't give you an input to test your solution):

https://adventofcode.com/2024/day/25

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#167

Post by gs17 »

thomascountz wrote: post #4

Whenever 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 think the easiest way to have 24/25 of something would be to have the "part 2" for each puzzle get released the next day. It would probably ruin the momentum about as much as having days off would (as another alternative to make the timing fit "advent"), but there could be a fun extra layer of puzzle with a hint of what the part 2 will be so people can try to speculate and modify their code in anticipation.

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#168

Post by throwingrocks »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #46
thomascountz wrote: post #4

Whenever 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 :).

Geez. Do you really think the number matters? I would be grateful to the creator even if it was 3 days.

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#169

Post by tjr »

timeon wrote: post #103
TeMPOraL wrote: post #96

Earlier 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.

I decided to indulge in a Dunkin' pumpkin donut this morning, what with it being late October and the weather actually now fall-like. Apparently they have already discontinued them!

Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time

#170

Post by tialaramex »

toast0 wrote: post #139
TeMPOraL wrote: post #96

Earlier 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!

> the Commercial Calendar is steadily squeezing the Christmas Season into December and out of the rest of the year! We can only hope. The Christmas song containment fields are weakening as we speak.

Right, my local grocery store moved Halloween stuff to where Diwali stuff was near the front of the store, and immediately put Xmas stuff where the Halloween stuff used to be, in a week's time it'll be a whole aisle of Xmas.
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