Advent of Code is almost here! For the uninitiated, Advent of Code is a December-long code challenge with awesome new puzzles to solve every day from December 1st to 25th. The puzzles are hard. But that’s what makes them so fun!

You might be asking yourself – What’s so great about a month of code challenges? Aren’t most code challenges usually kind of dumb and boring? Yes. Absolutely. Most bite-size code challenges are basically someone online writing a problem they think is clever, but instead it has no basis in reality and doesn’t make you think critically about anything. (I do not have a high opinion of most code challenges. 💩)

Advent of Code is different! The problems are more long-form, are great at educating about real-world concepts, and they make you think - really think - about your implementations, especially when brute-forcing something in your program would result in an hours-long runtime just to get your solution. There were several times last year I thought I’d solved a problem only to have to rewrite my code from scratch - mostly when part 2 of the problem asked for something I didn’t expect. It’s super enjoyable, and I highly recommend you join everyone online this year and give it a shot.

I participated in my first AoC last year, and I had an absolute blast! I sort of taught myself Python while doing the challenges, which may have added significant difficulty, but I think I did alright in the end. Here are my dubious solutions if you’re curious. Hope you join me for this year!

Advent of Code 2020 - Some Python Solutions

Got busy last year. Maybe I’ll finish these someday!