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Advent of Code

Advent of Code is an annual Advent calendar-style event traditionally featuring 25 small, Christmas-themed programming puzzles released daily from December 1 to 25, though starting in 2025 the number was reduced to 12; designed for participants of varying skill levels and solvable in any programming language. Created by software engineer Eric Wastl, the event launched on December 1, 2015, initially attracting 81 sign-ups by midnight and has since grown into a global phenomenon with over 200,000 participants by 2021, reaching 1,000,000 registered users by December 2022 and 273,313 active participants (those collecting at least one star) in 2024. Each puzzle typically includes two parts of increasing difficulty, with input data personalized for users to prevent direct solution sharing, and solutions expected to run in under 15 seconds on decade-old hardware. The event serves multiple purposes, including interview preparation, corporate training, university coursework, personal practice, and competitive speed contests via global and private leaderboards, though the global leaderboard was discontinued starting in 2025 due to associated stress and misuse. No formal background is required, as puzzles draw on logic, algorithms, and while incorporating narratives like Santa's operations. Participation is free, with optional leaderboards requiring OAuth authentication from supported providers, and the puzzles emphasize creativity and problem-solving over rote coding. Since its launch in , Advent of Code has fostered a vibrant , including an official subreddit for discussions, and continues to adapt its schedule while maintaining core traditions.

History

Creation and Launch

Advent of Code was founded in 2015 by Eric Wastl, a software engineer and senior architect at TCGPlayer based in , as a personal project to deliver fun, Christmas-themed programming challenges. Wastl conceived the event around Halloween that year, motivated by a desire to help friends and others enhance their programming skills through engaging, daily puzzles that emphasized learning new concepts without overwhelming complexity. The initiative drew inspiration from tradition, transforming it into an interactive countdown of coding exercises designed to appeal to a variety of skill levels. The event launched on December 1, 2015, with the first puzzle unlocking at midnight , followed by one new challenge each day through December 25, totaling 25 puzzles. Wastl aimed to make participation accessible, requiring no advanced background—only basic programming knowledge and problem-solving skills sufficed to progress through the challenges. Initially planned for a small group of about 70 participants, the launch saw 81 sign-ups by midnight on the first day, surprising Wastl with its immediate reception. For the debut year, Wastl developed the entire website at adventofcode.com himself, utilizing custom code for the backend to handle puzzle delivery, user inputs, and authentication via . The interface featured a simple design with animations to reveal daily puzzles, enhancing the festive while keeping the focus on the programming tasks. By the end of 2015, participation had surged to approximately 52,000 users, establishing Advent of Code as a burgeoning community event.

Growth and Evolution

Advent of Code experienced substantial annual growth in its participant base, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when traffic increased by 50% to over 180,000 participants worldwide. This surge highlighted the event's appeal as a remote, engaging activity amid global lockdowns, contributing to cumulative participation exceeding 1 million unique users by 2022, with consistent annual editions sustained through 2024. The event's format evolved to address sustainability challenges faced by its creator, Eric Wastl. Originally spanning 25 days from December 1 to 25 each year through , the structure changed in with an announcement on October 24 reducing it to 12 days starting that December, aimed at managing the increasing workload after a decade of operation. Significant updates to competitive elements occurred in , including the discontinuation of the global leaderboard due to factors such as intense competitive pressure, instances of cheating, infrastructure strains from high traffic, and targeted misuse like DDoS attacks, shifting emphasis to private leaderboards for more controlled group participation. To uphold the event's focus on human ingenuity, rules against using AI or large language models for solving puzzles and submitting to leaderboards were introduced starting in , as the puzzles are intentionally designed without regard for AI performance to encourage genuine skill development.

Event Format

Puzzle Structure

Each puzzle in Advent of Code is structured around two distinct parts, designed to progressively challenge participants. Part 1 presents a simpler problem that, upon successful solution, awards a silver star and unlocks Part 2, which introduces additional complexity and grants a gold star upon completion. Puzzles are framed by engaging narrative backstories tied to a holiday-themed overarching motif, such as assisting elves in logistical challenges or embarking on space adventures, which provide contextual flavor without affecting the core computational tasks. To personalize the experience, every participant receives a unique input dataset specific to their account, ensuring individualized solutions while maintaining a shared problem description and sample inputs for verification. The difficulty of puzzles escalates gradually across the event's days, accommodating a range of skill levels from beginners to experts, though the progression is subjective and depends on individual strengths in areas like algorithms or data structures. There are no formal time limits for solving, but submissions must execute within 15 seconds on reference hardware equivalent to a ten-year-old to prevent inefficient solutions from dominating leaderboards. Advent of Code emphasizes broad , requiring no advanced knowledge—only fundamental programming proficiency suffices for participation in any supported language, from to . Past years' puzzles remain publicly available indefinitely, allowing newcomers to practice or veterans to revisit challenges at any time. Since 2023, the event has explicitly discouraged the use of tools, such as large language models, for generating competitive submissions, as the puzzles are crafted specifically for human problem-solving; this policy aims to preserve the integrity of leaderboards while permitting for non-competitive learning or post-event analysis.

Release Schedule and Participation

Advent of Code puzzles are released daily at midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST, UTC-5), beginning on December 1 each year. Historically, from the event's inception in 2015 through 2024, the schedule spanned 25 days, concluding on December 25 to align with the traditional Advent calendar format. Starting with the 2025 edition, the event has been shortened to 12 days, ending mid-December, to address the creator's time constraints while preserving the daily release cadence and thematic day numbering (e.g., Day 1 on December 1). As of November 10, 2025, preparations for the 2025 event have been announced in the fall, with the first puzzles scheduled to unlock on December 1. Participation in Advent of Code is free and open to individuals of all programming skill levels, requiring no entry fees or formal prerequisites beyond basic problem-solving abilities. Users access the event via the official website, adventofcode.com, where they can authenticate using OAuth through third-party services such as GitHub or Reddit to create an account and submit solutions. Participants solve puzzles either directly on the site or locally using their preferred programming language and environment, then enter answers on the website to verify correctness; each puzzle typically features two parts, with successful submissions earning one star per part, for a maximum of 24 stars in the 2025 event (historically up to 50 in prior years). The event emphasizes enjoyment and learning over strict competition, with no deadlines for completing puzzles—participants can solve at their own pace. All puzzles from current and past years remain archived on the website, allowing year-round access and completion even after the annual event concludes. This ongoing availability supports inclusivity by enabling newcomers to explore previous editions at any time, fostering a welcoming environment for hobbyists, students, and professionals alike.

Leaderboards and Rules

Advent of Code employs a star-based scoring system to track participant progress, with each daily puzzle consisting of two parts that award a for completing the first part and a gold star for completing the second part. These stars serve as personal milestones, historically accumulating up to 50 total (two per day over 25 days from 2015–2024), or 24 total in 2025 (two per day over 12 days), and are displayed on users' profiles or private leaderboards to indicate completion status without numerical point values tied to global rankings. Leaderboards in Advent of Code are primarily private, allowing users to create customizable groups for friends, colleagues, or companies to compete informally. These private leaderboards rank participants based on completion times for earning stars, fostering a competitive environment focused on speed and efficiency while permitting creators to set specific rules such as maximum runtime, allowed programming languages, or restrictions on tools. The global leaderboard, which previously ranked the top 100 participants worldwide by a points system awarding higher values for faster star completions (e.g., 100 points for the first star, decreasing thereafter), was discontinued starting in 2025 due to excessive on and misuse, including DDoS attacks. Submissions must adhere to strict guidelines to ensure , including a limit of 15 seconds or less on reference equivalent to ten-year-old standard equipment, verified automatically upon upload. The use of or large language models to generate solutions is strongly discouraged, as the puzzles are intentionally designed for human problem-solving to build programming skills, though enforcement varies by private leaderboard rules set by their owners. Participants are required to write original code, with direct sharing of puzzle answers or inputs prohibited to maintain integrity, while discussions of approaches and insights are encouraged to promote collaboration without spoiling solutions. Enforcement relies on automated verification of submissions for correctness and compliance with time limits, supplemented by monitoring from event creator Eric Wastl to address violations and uphold community standards. Private leaderboard creators handle their own rule enforcement, emphasizing original effort over automated or shared code to prioritize educational value and fair competition.

Preparation

Puzzle Development

The preparation for each Advent of Code event spans 4 to 5 months, typically beginning in the summer or fall, during which creator Eric Wastl dedicates all of his available free time to the endeavor. Wastl single-handedly designs, codes, and tests every puzzle, drawing from an extensive personal list of hundreds of ideas that he continually refines and updates. This solo process ensures complete creative control while allowing for the integration of diverse inspirations, such as real-world coding challenges or talks from events like . The design philosophy emphasizes a balance between accessibility for beginners and escalating challenges for experienced programmers, avoiding the need for advanced algorithmic knowledge while encouraging exploration of new techniques or languages. Puzzles often feature thematic narratives, such as fantasy scenarios involving elves, submarines navigating caves, or other whimsical storylines, to frame the problems engagingly without overshadowing the core logic. Each daily puzzle comprises two parts: the second builds directly on the first, enabling participants to modify their existing solutions rather than starting from , which promotes modular practices and . To boost immersion, recent iterations have incorporated animations and richly descriptive prose alongside the technical elements. Testing involves Wastl solving each puzzle multiple times internally to gauge and adjust difficulty, ensuring solutions remain feasible within seconds on modest . He supplements this with testing by a select group of volunteers to verify uniqueness of answers and catch edge cases, as Wastl meticulously crafts puzzles to yield precisely one correct output per input. Minor non-core components, such as mechanisms, are occasionally handled by external contributors to streamline development. Over time, adaptations like the 2025 reduction to 12 puzzle days—announced to prevent burnout after a of 25-day events—reflect Wastl's focus on while maintaining the event's educational spirit. Wastl employs primarily manual coding in for implementing puzzle logic, generating unique inputs, and simulating solutions, leveraging the language's strengths in text processing and that align with the event's puzzle styles.

Technical Infrastructure

Advent of Code is built entirely in by its creator, Eric Wastl, encompassing server-side logic for puzzle delivery, input generation, answer validation, and star awarding mechanisms. The platform employs to efficiently manage requests without spawning new processes per hit, enabling robust handling of dynamic content such as personalized puzzle inputs. These inputs are generated via custom programs tailored to each user, ensuring unique datasets that require individual computation and discourage answer sharing across participants. The system supports real-time updates for leaderboards prior to 2025, tracking the top 100 solvers by completion speed to foster competition while monitoring overall site performance during peak hours. User authentication is outsourced through OAuth providers including , , , and , allowing participants to log in without sharing credentials directly with the Advent of Code servers and freeing development focus for core features. Answer validation occurs server-side by checking submissions against the user's specific input, confirming a single correct numerical result without executing participant code, which helps mitigate cheating attempts. All past events are archived indefinitely on the official website, preserving puzzles, inputs, and leaderboards for retrospective access. Scalability is achieved through self-managed infrastructure on (AWS), utilizing an Application Load Balancer for traffic distribution and manual scaling adjustments to accommodate sudden spikes, such as thousands of users arriving within hours of puzzle releases. The platform has grown to support over 1.4 million registered users annually, with approximately 930,000 actively solving at least one puzzle, particularly during peaks when traffic surges. Security measures include AWS-based to maintain reliability, while annual maintenance involves updating puzzle themes and content; post-2025 changes, such as eliminating the global leaderboard and shortening the event to mid-, further reduce infrastructural load by curbing high-frequency queries and competitive stress.

Community and Impact

Online Communities

The primary hub for Advent of Code participants is the r/adventofcode subreddit, founded in 2015 shortly after the event's launch, serving as a central space for discussions, solution sharing after each puzzle's release period ends, and official event announcements. This community facilitates year-round access to past puzzles and solutions, enabling ongoing learning and collaboration beyond the annual December event. Participants engage through structured activities such as daily megathreads dedicated to non-spoiler hints and help, which prevent revealing puzzle details during active solving windows to uphold fairness. Additional , like code golf challenges where users compete to write the shortest functional code for given puzzles, foster creative problem-solving and language comparisons. Subreddit activity surges in , reflecting the event's seasonal nature, with comment volumes increasing significantly during the puzzle release period. Beyond the subreddit, unofficial Discord servers—often tied to specific programming languages or enthusiast groups—provide real-time chat for collaborative solving and strategy sharing. Twitch streamers broadcast live puzzle attempts, attracting viewers interested in watching diverse approaches in action, with annual lists compiling active broadcasters. Private leaderboards, a feature of the official Advent of Code platform, enable corporate teams to host internal competitions and track progress discreetly. Community managers Danielle Lucek and Aneurysm9 coordinate these interactions, ensuring smooth engagement across platforms. In October 2025, event creator Eric Wastl announced changes for the 2025 edition, including reducing the number of puzzles to 12 days (starting December 1) and permanently discontinuing the global leaderboard after a decade of use, citing personal sustainability and past issues with stress and misuse; private leaderboards will continue with enhanced sharing options. Community contributions, including donations via the AoC++ system, directly support the event's technical infrastructure and ongoing development. Strict no-spoiler guidelines are universally enforced during event days, prohibiting any discussion of puzzle specifics until the global leaderboard's gold-star cap has passed, preserving the challenge's integrity for all skill levels.

Educational and Professional Influence

Advent of Code serves as a valuable educational tool by providing progressive programming challenges that build essential skills in problem-solving, algorithms, and , accessible to participants with knowledge regardless of formal background. It supports self-study through daily puzzles solvable in any programming language, such as or , allowing learners to experiment and deepen familiarity with syntax, data structures, and optimization techniques. In academic settings, it has been integrated into university coursework, reinforcing concepts like and computational efficiency in a gamified format. Coding bootcamps and similar programs leverage its structure for hands-on practice, fostering transferable skills applicable across languages and real-world applications. Professionally, Advent of Code enhances career development by preparing participants for technical interviews through practice with time-bound, algorithmic problems that mirror coding challenges in hiring processes. Companies utilize private leaderboards to facilitate team-building exercises, often imposing custom rules like language restrictions or runtime limits to encourage collaboration and skill-sharing among employees. Participants report gains in algorithmic thinking and proficiency, which align with industry demands, as evidenced by its role in company training programs that simulate environments. With over 500,000 solvers by 2021, it has become a staple for demonstrating problem-solving abilities in job applications, contributing to its widespread adoption in professional contexts. The event receives praise for its inclusivity, accommodating diverse skill levels and promoting a fun, annual tradition that motivates sustained engagement without requiring advanced expertise. However, critiques highlight how puzzles increase in difficulty over the course of each event, potentially alienating who struggle with later challenges despite early . Since 2023, debates on integration have emerged, with the organizers emphasizing that puzzles are crafted for human enjoyment and problem-solving, explicitly stating no accommodations for capabilities, which has sparked discussions on the evolving role of large language models in . Culturally, Advent of Code fosters a global through shared participation and events on platforms like , where discussions reveal trends in language adoption and tool usage reflective of broader developer behaviors. Donations via the AoC++ program directly support its continuation, enabling annual iterations and infrastructure maintenance without commercial sponsorship reliance. Its significance is underscored in academic analyses, such as a 2024 study examining threads from 2019–2021, which characterizes participant information-sharing as a driver of skill persistence and highlights its influence on professional tech trends.

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