bbornstein/aoc

Advent of Code

Advent of Code

If you like puzzles and programming, you might enjoy Advent of Code. It’s 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,” [1, 2] using spreadsheets, or even FPGAs [3]. The self-contained nature of each puzzle with well-defined requirements, inputs, and outputs is a refreshing break from the fuzzy, real-world technical problems we’re often called upon to solve in our everyday work. I’ve found small puzzles like this to be a great forcing function to learn a new programming language.

If you decide to participate, Lan Dang has created a JPL Slack channel: #advent-of-code.

References

1. Advent of Code: About
2. Advent of Code: Behind the Scenes (video)
3. Advent of Code 2018 solutions in Verilog on a $49 Lattice iCEstick FPGA with an open source toolchain