Janne Mattila

From programmer to programmer -- Programming just for the fun of it

Advent of Code 2023 is coming!

Posted on: November 27, 2023

Advent of Code 2023 is starting in just a few days. 25 coding puzzles to solve in December. Are you ready to collect all the stars?

Eric Wastl the creator of Advent of Code tweeted this reminder:

I started participating in 2019 and have been hooked ever since. I don’t need chocolate advent calendars because I have something much better every day in December. I’m definitely not the best at solving these puzzles, but I have a lot of fun while doing it.

Here are my stars over the years:

So, there are still quite many stars to collect!

One of the things I like about Advent of Code is the community and the discussions around these puzzles. You can find them and more at r/adventofcode. There is also help available if you get stuck with the puzzles.

I don’t often do visualizations about puzzles, but I did one for day 18 in 2019. I was so happy when I finally managed to solve the puzzle that I had to create this:

Go Reddit and see how cool visualizations people have created over the years.

Or then you can use search in YouTube to find videos about visualizations.

I’ll put a few examples of illustrations that people have created over the years:

2020 Day 11 (Part 2) Waiting Room Simulator 3D

Advent of Code 2021 by Matei Stroia

Advent of Code Day 3 - Toboggan Trajectory Animated

2020 Day 17 (Part 1) 3d Game Of Life in Minecraft

(2022 Day 22 # Part 2) (C#, Unity) A little visualization

How cool is that!

Are you ready?

If you haven’t yet participated in Advent of Code, I highly recommend it. Grab your favorite programming language and start solving puzzles. You can also use this as an opportunity to learn a new language or improve your skills in a language you already know.

Go to Advent of Code and sign up. See you there!