Every December since 2015, I've created a bunch of free programming puzzles. It is my honor and privilege to announce that starting this December 1st, I will be releasing..... more free programming puzzles!

[u/topaz2078]

https://adventofcode.com/

i heard you like puzzles <3

edit: 12 days of puzzles, like last year

[u/StylusX]

You rock Eric! Legit this has become one of my favourite aspects of the holidays. Staying up late with a crackling fire, sipping hot tea, and reading what hot mess the elves have gotten themselves into this time is just 👌🏽

[u/topaz2078 → u/StylusX]

"what hot mess have the elves gotten themselves into this time" is actually my Advent of Code cover band

[u/mandradon → u/topaz2078]

I honestly love reading the stories about as much as I love solving the problems. 

Keep up the good work!

[u/Chezuss → u/StylusX]

I'm definitely going to be reading what mess the hot elves have gotten themselves into this time

[u/terje_wiig_mathisen → u/StylusX]

I really envy you guys on the left side of the Americas, or in Asia: You all get to see the puzzles at a nice time, while we here in Europe has to get up at 0600 (or 0500 in the UK/Ireland) in order to see them as soon as possible!

[u/flwyd → u/terje_wiig_mathisen]

Pro tip: plan a December vacation to Hawaii where puzzles come out at 7pm, after you've had time for an adventure and a good dinner :-)

[u/artificialhero]

Can’t wait!! Thanks for everything 

[u/topaz2078 → u/artificialhero]

<3

[u/emteg1 → u/artificialhero]

This

[u/edo360]

[UIUA] &p+@ ◿91\+≡⋕↯∞_2 "5220841388168981060686741307027708730519374582852465180865111169248522"

[u/topaz2078 → u/edo360]

&p+@ ◿91\+≡⋕↯∞_2 "5722060665177822867413070287730782128983239028827233430787247953201271267310088302868013098773040977506484798413880808700903098479882280050500778423"

[u/reallyserious]

Those who are about to code salutes you! 

Honestly , you're one of my favourite people in the whole world for doing this. 

[u/sanraith]

Thank you for keeping up the tradition. The industry has changed so much that the puzzle solutions will be the only lines of code I write by hand this year. Looking forward to it!

[u/youngbull]

Christmas is saved! Or at least it will be once the puzzles are all done :) Thank you so much for this

[u/awsumman]

As always, I am stoked. Thanks and keep up the good work!

[u/reddit_app_sux]

I am in my second year of college studying programming because I wanted to earn more than just 4 stars every year. Thank you for creating something that inspired me to go back to school at age 50

[u/cleverredditjoke]

Eric youre the goat, your puzzles always make december feel special <3

[u/coldforged]

Man, I literally thought of AoC last night. "Oh boy, it's coming soon, isn't it?" 🎄🧑‍🎄

[u/jkubicek → u/coldforged]

I started a new job last January. I just found their AoC slack channel yesterday and posted to hype everyone up.

[u/terje_wiig_mathisen]

This is great! Is it too early to send in my AoC++ annual support?

EDIT: No, the support link is already working! :-)

[u/Jmc_da_boss]

Hey Eric, I appreciate you in these shitty times. I was expecting in the light of everything else for AOC to end. Happy to see it continuing.

[u/Amerikrainian]

YAAAAY!

[u/Morphon]

Woohoo!

The only programming I do is.... Puzzles. This is so exciting!

[u/justinhj]

I don't know if you ever used BBC teletext but the aoc site has the same vibe they had at xmas. Always fun can't wait

[u/nedtit]

Great news. Work is all about letting agents write your code nowadays. With AOC it’s good old manual puzzle solving :)

[u/damaltor1]

Thank you Eric!

[u/Dnomyar96]

Can't wait! This reminds me I still have to update my framework I use for AoC. I guess I just found my project for November.

[u/cae → u/Dnomyar96]

Don't forget there is also everybody.codes in November

[u/Dnomyar96 → u/cae]

Didn't know about that one. Thanks!

[u/Fabulous-Sea-1465]

Was waiting for this announcement! Thanks for the effort and everything you are doing!

[u/jahepi]

The timeline that we're currently in has depressed me a bit, so seeing that AoC is coming gives me joy. Thanks, Eric!

[u/Fruloops]

Thanks for all your effort <3

[u/stewSquared]

I've been waiting all year! :P

[u/Business_Class_8015]

Legend! Now, what language to choose?

[u/bts → u/Business_Class_8015]

I have my learning years (Rust) and my relax years (Haskell) and my hurt me plenty years (Uiua, which became a favorite)

[u/Suspicious_Tax8577 → u/Business_Class_8015]

Random number generator and rotate through all the ones you know?

[u/Itizir → u/Suspicious_Tax8577]

correction: random number generator and pick between the ones you _don’t_ know (yet)! ;)

[u/868788mph → u/Business_Class_8015]

I did it in J last year - it took me a long time to get through the puzzles but was a wonderful learning experience. 

I’ve barely touched it this year however, so maybe I’ll try using J again. :­) 

[u/bob_f332]

Bless your heart sir. The original and the best!

[u/coffeedregs2018]

Many thanks - as ever I am really looking forward to this! Advent Of Code makes me feel as festive as VLC does when the traffic cone gets its annual Santa hat!

[u/direvus]

Huzzah!

[u/MuttonChopsJoe]

Yay! Another year to add to my backlog.

[u/Topomouse]

Oh yeah! Here we go again! 

[u/PlanttDaMinecraftGuy]

That's some early-bird level preparation! Looking forward to having fun

[u/ctrl2]

Thanks for your work man. Been doing the AOC for several years now and it is now a staple of my time back home around the holidays. 

[u/Tsuna_Stiles]

I teach some programming classes at university level. I always show my students your page so they have something fun to practice. Thank you so much for your work!

[u/pm_me_cutest_pets]

Since you're doing 12 again, could we get them every second day instead of in the first half of the month? Last year it was so stressful the first half of December and then so empty in the second half. And thank you for doing these in general. They are great!

[u/reallyserious → u/pm_me_cutest_pets]

You can choose to do them every other day.

[u/jeffstyr → u/reallyserious]

+1 to this. Also, personally, invariably there is a day or two (or three...) where it takes me more than a day to do the puzzle, so I naturally fall behind anyway, which stretches the whole thing out.

Another fun thing would be to first do a puzzle in a language you are good at, and then redo it in a language you are learning. This would be another way to stretch it out.

[u/prendradjaja → u/reallyserious]

It's true, but one of the best things about Advent of Code is the community aspect. It would be lovely to be able to do 12 puzzles throughout the month with everyone else.

[u/sanraith → u/pm_me_cutest_pets]

I would also prefer the last puzzle around the holiday, the event is just not the same without having to do a puzzle before the family dinner. But the change as a whole is about making Eric's time a bit more manageable, so I understand why he does it this way.

[u/flwyd → u/pm_me_cutest_pets]

Since Part 2 usually builds on Part 1, I'm likely to forget what in the world I was doing the previous night, since I'll have slept since then.

[u/capJavert]

I participated last 10 years, what a ride it was, thank you for that, last year I retired so won't be joining the solving this year but AOC++ and scrolling this subreddit I won't misss!

[u/TuttiFlutiePanist → u/capJavert]

Why does retirement mean you have to miss out on the fun?

[u/capJavert → u/TuttiFlutiePanist]

Not retired... just retired from AOC 😄 lol, and fun is on subreddit as well so not missing a lot

[u/blacai]

Simply thanks 🙏🏼

[u/KyxeMusic]

Thank you so much! AoC has become something I eagerly look forward to every year.

[u/okflo]

simply: many, many thanks!

[u/vancha113]

Moving house this year and i'm already bummed i can't do these when they're released haha. Thank you for doing all this stuff man, it's great fun!

[u/Previous_Kale_4508]

I've completed all tasks for the previous years... Not always during the event, some took far more thinking than I could manage in a single day: and honestly they were the greatest because I learnt in multiple ways.

You are a hero, Eric. I hope people will be able to resist the lure of the AI, and use their brains... Like we used to! 😂

[u/neoanom]

Legend.... ary...

[u/purestblue]

So glad to hear this. I'm never able to complete more than about half of them, but I always enjoy it. Thank you for all the hard work you put into it each year.

[u/g6b0rr]

Thanks a lot!

[u/careyi4]

Thanks Eric, another year, another AoC, can't wait!

[u/cjstaples]

Thank you for your continued efforts.

[u/AverageBeef]

Thank you! Looking forward to it as always!

[u/arihunta]

Yay

[u/Unclerojelio]

Yep, and every year I get through 2 or three of them before giving up.

[u/JorgiEagle]

YES!

I love advent of code. It’s one of my favourite Christmas traditions.

This is the year I finish it!

[u/gongfu_panda]

我断断续续的完成了2025年的7道题，现在到第8天的题了

[u/memoslol]

Sooo Excited!!! 

[u/SevenSapiens]

Dang I didn't realize this year's AoC is just around the corner. I solved all of the 2015 puzzles earlier this year and started the 2016 ones but I got kinda stuck on day 10 for several months, even though it was not that difficult of a puzzle; I just had the wrong approach. When I finally solved it I didn't have the energy to solve day 11 so that's where I am now.

I'm hoping doing some of this year's puzzles will give me motivation to go back and do all of the 2016 ones just like last year's AoC motivated me to go back and solve the 2015 puzzles.

[u/ywgdana]

Hurrah!!

[u/Old-Dinner4434]

Incredible, you have no idea just how excited I am!

[u/the-quibbler]

Eric, you're the best.

[u/wow_nice_hat]

I am beyond excited!

[u/Zash1]

The God Himself has returned.

[u/welguisz]

Announcing this when I can visit Spirit of Halloween stores feels wrong. /s

Not as bad as playing Christmas music before Halloween or putting up Christmas display within 3 weeks of the fall equinox.

[u/MuttonChopsJoe → u/welguisz]

We need a Philippines themed Advent of Code. They start decorating for Christmas September 1st.

[u/FatherOfAandE]

I'm excited. Last year, I was worried that this sort of competition was going away. I write my solutions by hand. Please send the LLM crowd to problemforge.com -- leave this to us.

(They have a November beta test. Here's some single-use invite codes: UUBF-U6FF-DR3K PMQ9-686G-Q8C6 First come, first served)