This is fantastic in every way. The hardest part of participating for me was finding more time closer to the holidays as the challenges got harder. Fewer, better challenges, with more space between them and the end of the year is a brilliant solution. So excited and grateful.
Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
181–190 of 226 posts
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#182I don’t think I ever could do all the 25 so this is fine with me.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#183Whenever 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.
I am not aware of Eric saying something about that alternative, but this comment on reddit[1] makes a lot of sense to me:
> Given that part 2 is often a very simple modification of part 1, this could lead to many of the days being total letdowns. I can enjoy a simple puzzle, but I'd be a bit disappointed if one day is a single line change to the previous day.
I'd also add that not having to be worried everyday about something makes a lot of sense. He can have fewer days "on call" in December with.
[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/comments/1ocwh04/chang...
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#184One of the reasons I stopped participating was that as the second half of december was approaching I had less and less free time for solving the puzzles. So to me it is also a welcome change, I will try to finish it again this year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the creator has metrics that show that most people drop off around the halfway mark, for the exact same reason
You can see aggregated results on `stats` [1] for every year. In general, half the people drop in the first 3-4 days. For last year, by day 12 there is less than 1/5 of day 01. While the stats do count people that completed later, the shape appears to track well with what I saw during the events since 2021.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#185Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Advent does not mean 25. It just means 'the coming', so 12, 25, 1, 8 are all acceptable lengths. And if you reay need it to be 24 you can calm it 0.5 per day.
It's a reference to a German tradition of Advent Calendar with 24 small doors. Every day from 1st to 24th of December children would open one door and find a candy, a picture, a small toy, a quest etc. depending on calendar's theme
I get it, but Advent calendars are not just German. I am pretty sure they are common all over the western world where Xmas is celebrated. But Advent doesn't in any way mean 25.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#187One of the reasons I stopped participating was that as the second half of december was approaching I had less and less free time for solving the puzzles. So to me it is also a welcome change, I will try to finish it again this year.
I have the opposite problem - I never get started until work wraps up.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#188Alright, I'm finally going to give it a shot this year!
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#189This is fantastic in every way. The hardest part of participating for me was finding more time closer to the holidays as the challenges got harder. Fewer, better challenges, with more space between them and the end of the year is a brilliant solution. So excited and grateful.
Fewer challenges, but no more space between them. They still come out daily starting December 1st. They just stop coming sooner.
Re: Advent of Code 2025: Number of puzzles reduce from 25 to 12 for the first time
#190One of the reasons I stopped participating was that as the second half of december was approaching I had less and less free time for solving the puzzles. So to me it is also a welcome change, I will try to finish it again this year.
Same, I love AoC but I just never have time for them (December is always the busiest time of year in my job). I would have liked if a puzzle was released every 2 days though so it still spanned the whole month. Would be more aligned with the advent calendar concept. In fact in previous years the puzzles have always had two parts so if that format is still being retained there will still effectively be 24 puzzles.
Then again who has the time in the latter half of December?
I completed AoC on time every day once and let's just say it wasn't a very pleasant experience. Very similar to sticking to a too ambitious, too rigid gym schedule. Still time well spent, but it sucks out all the joy.