I've written about Advent of Code in the past, but that was 5 years ago, so this warrants a new post, and there's an extra opportunity, I think.
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The code calendar
The advent of code is a daily code challenge, comprising of two parts based around the same problem, with increasing complexity. There's a wonderful little story that's weaved through the days, usually relating to Christmas and rouge elves that you can help.
I use it as a yearly chance to try to bend the jq language into shapes it definitely wasn't intended for. It's another way of clearing out some of the cobwebs that gather in my head (these are my attempts so far).
Perhaps you're new to software development or a particular language, then this is a great way of having real problems to solve where there's an absolute answer. There's also a wealth of solutions posted up on the Reddit channel if you (or I) get stuck and need inspiration.
Changes to the programme
As of this year, there's now only 12 challenge days (previously it was 24 - one for each day until Christmas eve). For me this is welcomed, partly because I'd usually break by day 16, but also, I'm not sure I want to spend hours tinkering on a hard problem on Christmas eve (having never gotten past 16, I hadn't yet!).
The global leaderboard has also been removed. I personally never made it anywhere near the leaderboard, but some people would obsess over it. Sadly, with the rise and ease of access of AI tools, it meant quickly the time from challenge release to posting a correct answer started turning up in seconds long. That's single digit seconds to solve the problem - which really isn't in the spirit at all.
AI was banned/asked to not join in with the leaderboard, but completely removing the global leaderboard completely takes the pressure off (and that idea that "why can't I solve it that fast").
You can still create a leaderboard for your friends or team - which makes sense.
Speaking of AI
Here's where my final suggestion might be controversial: why not try to solve using AI?
By that, I mean, if you're in a similar camp as me and have been sceptical of AI and a little wary, this might be a good opportunity to dip your toe in. I don't mean to paste in the challenge and have AI spit out the answer - that doesn't help anyone.
It could be seen as a chance to practise controlling the context and the problem space with AI doing the work. Perhaps testing different models from providers, but perhaps trying out local LLM models to see if they can do the work (so perhaps we could be a little more in control of the power usage).
As for me, I'm having to actively disable copilot in VS Code when solving the advent of code, because it's so desperate to help me!
