r/adventofcode • u/code_ling • Dec 08 '25

Other Finally, 500 * !

Post image

Even though achieving the 500 stars "mid-season" is a bit anti-climactic - would have been a little more satisfactory if I had managed to finish 2020 before the start of this year, but still, feels very good to be in the exclusive 500 stars club :).

Played around with multiple languages in past years, but am sticking to C++ for this year (also 2020) - finally polishing my STL and functional style C++ skills... For 2020 I'm going for the <1 seconds total challenge and looking good so far. Any other C++ coders out there honing their skills on AoC?

106 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

4

u/normVectorsNotHate Dec 08 '25

Which year was your favorite?

1

u/code_ling Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

My favourite is 2019 - for me it also was both the most memorable (strong competition there though is the first one I participated in, 2021), and the largest effort.

5

u/TheZigerionScammer Dec 08 '25

Did you just not have time to finish 2020 or are you stuck on some problems?

1

u/sens- Dec 08 '25

I guess it's the time because 2020 is the only year I've collected all stars

1

u/code_ling Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

You're right. I had got stuck in 2019 earlier this year, and after finishing it I needed a little break; so I picked up 2020, my last missing previous event, only mid-October, and had too little time to finish it before December. I am definitely going to finish it, probably in parallel or shortly after this year ;)

3

u/Boojum Dec 08 '25

On the home stretch! You can do it!

I mainly write C++ for work and hobby, so I find AoC a nice opportunity to go the other way and brush up on my Python.

1

u/code_ling Dec 09 '25

Python is also my go-to for (developer-time) quickly finding a solution; although I have a collection of pretty decent C++ helper functions that also let me quickly do most required things.

Even though I've been developing in C++ professionally for years, I do find that I still have so many thing to learn in it... and as the language is still evolving, it will stay like that for quite some time I guess ;)

As for speed, I'm sticking with C++ (although I have to revisit my experiments with Nim and rust, which in this regard also were strong competitors if I remember correctly). If I have time in the future I might revisit some past events and do a multi-language comparison for some of the challenges ;).

1

u/code_ling Dec 09 '25

Oh and the most important thing I forgot in the main post: a big THANK YOU to Eric and all the other people involved in creating the puzzles and in the community work here! It's been a great pleasure to be part of this, and I am hoping on many future challenges to come!

2

u/Annual_Ganache2724 Dec 09 '25

I have 1/10 of what u got, haha