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Advent of Code 2025

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Re: Advent of Code 2025

#381

Post by alach11 »

saberience wrote: post #347
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.

Agreed. There is no "beginner" or amateur programmer who could complete even part of a single Advent of Code problem.

Usually the first day or two are readily solvable in Excel with just regular spreadsheet formulas.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#383

Post by deergomoo »

eloisant wrote: post #322
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.

The point is not that it's easy, but that you don't need much knowledge beyond knowing how to code. In this sense it's accessible: you won't get stuck because of a word you don't understand or a concept you've never heard of.

> you won't get stuck because of a word you don't understand or a concept you've never heard of

I very much disagree here. To make any sort of progress in AoC, in my experience, you need at least:

- awareness of graphs and how to traverse them

- some knowledge of a pathfinding algorithm

- an understanding of memoisation and how it can be applied to make deeply recursive computations feasible

Those types of puzzle come up a lot, and it’s not anything close to what I’d expect someone with “just a little programming knowledge” to have.

Someone with just a little programming knowledge is probably good with branches and loops, some rudimentary OOP, and maybe knows when to use a list vs a map. They’re not gonna know much about other data structures or algorithms.

They could learn them on the go of course, but then that’s why I don’t think basic coding knowledge is enough.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#385

Post by volemo »

f1shy wrote: post #23
PaulRobinson wrote: post #14

Advent of Code is one of the highlights of December for me. It's sad, but inevitable, that the global leaderboard had to be pulled. It's also understandable that this year is just 12 days, so takes some pressure off. If you've never done it before, I recommend it. Don't try and "win", just enjoy the problem solving and the whimsy.

While is „only“ 12 days, are like 24 challenges. As no leaderboard is there, and I do it for fun, i will do it in 24 days.

Yep, I don't really understand why the author didn't make it one per day for 24 days. Am I missing something obvious?

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#386

Post by mclau153 »

"That's not the right answer; your answer is too low. Curiously, it's the right answer for someone else; you might be logged in to the wrong account or just unlucky. In any case, you need to be using your puzzle input. If you're stuck, make sure you're using the full input data; there are also some general tips on the about page, or you can ask for hints on the subreddit. Please wait one minute before trying again. [Return to Day 1]"

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#387

Post by nurettin »

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).

If it is not solvable with a Ruby one-liner, it is not a well defined problem.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#388

Post by tgv »

alexfoo wrote: post #366
tgv wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a problem every other day, so it's 1, 3, ..., 23.

No, the puzzles are every day from the 1st to the 12th inclusive. From https://adventofcode.com/2025/about : " Why did the number of days per event change? It takes a ton of my free time every year to run Advent of Code, and building the puzzles accounts for the majority of that time. After keeping a consistent schedule for ten years(!), I needed a change. The puzzles still start on December 1st so that the day numbe…

Indeed. I had misunderstood that.

Re: Advent of Code 2025

#389

Post by gerikson »

volemo wrote: post #385
f1shy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While is „only“ 12 days, are like 24 challenges. As no leaderboard is there, and I do it for fun, i will do it in 24 days.

Yep, I don't really understand why the author didn't make it one per day for 24 days. Am I missing something obvious?

Since the start, each problem has 2 parts (2 "stars"). Part one sets up the problem, ensures you have parsed the input correctly, etc. After submitting the correct answer to that part, part 2 is revealed, which sometimes expands the proplem space, adds new limits, etc. Something that solves part 1 might be inadequate for part 2.
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