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Advent of Code 2025

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Re: Advent of Code 2025

#331

Post by roman_soldier »

torben-friis wrote: post #320
roman_soldier wrote: post #312

Not a fan of these "Coding for fun" things. Code for a job to earn money, yes, a side project where there is an end goal, yes. This seems like a waste of time for working developer. Maybe it's useful for people trying to learn but also becoming pointless now as all Junior dev roles can be done with AI. I mean do plumbers have an advent of plumbing where they try and unblock shit filled toilets for fun?

>I mean do plumbers have an advent of plumbing where they try and unblock shit filled toilets for fun? No, but you’ll see it for writers, musicians, and the like. Engineering (software or not) can be an intellectually rewarding experience for many. I don’t know why some people find this something to scoff at, would you rather have no pleasure derived from your work?

No I get that, it's just not for me that's all.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#332

Post by speed_spread »

4pkjai wrote: post #25
fainpul wrote: post #20

Opinion poll: Python is extremely suitable for these kind of problems. C++ is also often used, especially by competitive programmers. Which "non-mainstream" or even obscure languages are also well suited for AoC? Please list your weapon of choice and a short statement why it's well suited (not why you like it, why it's good for AoC).

Kotlin, because it’s a language I like

Modern straight Java works just as well.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#334

Post by bashkiddie »

jlouis wrote: post #34
fainpul wrote: post #20

Opinion poll: Python is extremely suitable for these kind of problems. C++ is also often used, especially by competitive programmers. Which "non-mainstream" or even obscure languages are also well suited for AoC? Please list your weapon of choice and a short statement why it's well suited (not why you like it, why it's good for AoC).

Go is strong. You get something where writing a solution doesn't take too much time, you get a type system, you can brute-force problems, and the usual mind-numbing boring data-manipulation handling fits well into the standard tools. OCaml is strong too. Stellar type system, fast execution and sane semantics unlike like 99% of all programming languages. If you want to create elegant solutions to problems, it's a good…

> Go is strong.

How do you parse the puzzle input into a data structure of your choice?

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#335

Post by wccrawford »

onion2k wrote: post #288
alexfoo wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got to agree. I'm even surprised at just how little progress many of my friends and ex-colleagues over the years make given that they hold down reasonable developer jobs.

In order to complete AoC you need more than just the ability to write code and solve problems. You need to find abstract problem-solving motivating. A lot of people don't see the point in competing for social capital (internet points) or expending time and energy on problems that won't live on after they've completed them. I have no evidence to say this, but I'd guess a lot more people give up on AoC because they don…

That's exactly why I don't do more than I do. I do some of the easy ones and it's fun. Then it gets a little harder and I start wondering how much time I want to put into this.

And then something shiny and fun comes along during a problem that I'm having trouble with, and I just never come back.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#336

Post by dgb23 »

roman_soldier wrote: post #312

Not a fan of these "Coding for fun" things. Code for a job to earn money, yes, a side project where there is an end goal, yes. This seems like a waste of time for working developer. Maybe it's useful for people trying to learn but also becoming pointless now as all Junior dev roles can be done with AI. I mean do plumbers have an advent of plumbing where they try and unblock shit filled toilets for fun?

> I mean do plumbers have an advent of plumbing where they try and unblock shit filled toilets for fun?

Yes, plumbers and other types of craftspeople and technicians do also have these little fun competitions. Why shouldn't they?

I think the reason some of us programmers do these things, is likely because many (myself included) entered the field as enthusiasts and hobbyists in the first place.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#337

Post by volkadav »

alexfoo wrote: post #250
macintux wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone else in the thread lamented the problems as "too easy" and I wondered what world I was living in.

The group of people for which the problems are "too easy" is probably quite small. According to Eric last year ( https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/comments/1hly9dw/2024_... ) there were 559 people that had obtained all 500 stars. I'm happy to be one of them. The actual number is going to be higher as more people will have finished the puzzles since then, and many people may have finished all of the puzzles but sp…

Sorry to focus on just one aspect of your (excellent) post, but do you have recommendations for reading up on A*/SAT beyond wikipedia? I'm mostly self-taught (did about a minor's worth of post-bacc comp sci after getting a chemistry degree) and those just hasn't come up much, e.g. I don't see A* mentioned at a first glance through CLRS and only in passing in Skiena's algorithms book. Thank you!

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#338

Post by radiator »

fainpul wrote: post #20

Opinion poll: Python is extremely suitable for these kind of problems. C++ is also often used, especially by competitive programmers. Which "non-mainstream" or even obscure languages are also well suited for AoC? Please list your weapon of choice and a short statement why it's well suited (not why you like it, why it's good for AoC).

A new language every year. A language I had intended to learn. Using a different programming paradigm, or a paradigm which I have not used recently.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#339

Post by fifilura »

duxup wrote: post #285
deergomoo wrote: post #225

> You don't need a computer science background to participate - just a little programming knowledge and some problem solving skills will get you pretty far. Every time I see this I wonder how many amateur/hobbyist programmers it sets up for disappointment. Unless your definition of “pretty far” is “a small number of the part ones”, it’s simply not true.

On sorta the same topic: In the programming world I feel like there's a lot of info "for beginners" and a lot of folks / activities for experts. But that middle ground world is strange... a lot of it is a combo of filling in "basics" and also touching more advanced topics at the same time and the amount of content and just activities filling that in seems very low. I get it though, the middle ground skilled audience…

Middle level is where you pay with sweat.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#340

Post by ls-a »

yeasku wrote: post #258
ls-a wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and dislike different things

I mean people use the internet to find people who like similar things. Why would you use a site called HackerNews if you are not a hacker? No idea.

I'm not a hacker I'm just news unfortunately
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