Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill sets and skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like. People use them as interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice problems, a speed contest, or to challenge each other.
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. Nor do you need a fancy computer; every problem has a solution that completes in at most 15 seconds on ten-year-old hardware.
If you'd like to support Advent of Code, you can do so indirectly by helping to [Shareon Twitter Mastodon] it with others, or directly via PayPal or Coinbase.
If you get stuck, try your solution against the examples given in the puzzle; you should get the same answers. If not, re-read the description. Did you misunderstand something? Is your program doing something you don't expect? After the examples work, if your answer still isn't correct, build some test cases for which you can verify the answer by hand and see if those work with your program. Make sure you have the entire puzzle input. 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.
Puzzles, Code, & Design: Eric Wastl
Beta Testing:
- Tim Giannetti
- Ben Lucek
- JP Burke
- Aneurysm9
- Andrew Skalski
Community Managers: Danielle Lucek and Aneurysm9
Playing: You!