Advent of Code participation

Last year, for the first time, I have participated in the Advent of Code—an advent calendar with two programming puzzles per day—and I have now completed all the fifty puzzles.

It was a mostly fun activity, practicing some problem solving that is not always exercised at work, and refreshing on Computer Science fundamentals that time faded away.

However, it felt sometimes a bit exhausting solving these puzzles for twenty five consecutive days. This was particularly true after a busy day at work. Some of the puzzles were quick to solve, but some of them could become a very time consuming activity (I am looking at you Day 20 puzzle!).

As last year I started to learn Rust, I decided to use the Advent of Code to sharpen my Rustacean skills. As a result, it took me longer to solve the puzzles than what it would take if I used Python or C++ (damn you borrow checker!). All this additional time spent in the puzzles due some level of unfamiliarity with the language contributed to my energyless finale.

I am glad that I participated though. I learned about new theorems and algorithms and I became much more acquainted with writing Rust code in a functional style, in particular using its powerful iterator machinery. I do intend to keep participating in future editions of Advent of Code.

If you are interested, my solutions are in my GitHub repository.