For anyone interested, advent of code is about to start! (first puzzles dropping at midnight ET which is in around 11 hours)
We have a community in the instance at [email protected] for discussion about the event and that will have solution threads where you can post and compare against other people
Advent of code is a programming puzzle advent calendar where new puzzles drop every day until the 25th. They can be done in any language and puzzles are released on the AoC site
Last year I decided to do it in Rust, in order to learn Rust. I found out pretty quickly that you can't just jump from Java/Python/Haskell into Rust and expect to understand what's going on. This year I feel more prepared, so if time permits I'll make it right this time.
Lol, that reminds me of when I was in Uni, I had a systems development class, they taught in C, all the lectures, tutorials and assessments were done in C. Our final assignment was handed out the week the first Rust v1.0.0 build dropped in 2015. I had been following the hype around the development of Mozilla's new language, and I was so keen, I asked my professor if I could complete my final assignment using Rust. He said it's a great idea. Then cut to me furiously trying to learn Rust in just two weeks, so I could even start the assignment, including C interop, implementing functions with c-style interfaces for callbacks, and lots of unsafe blocks for memory manipulation and pointer manipulation. In the end I was just forcing Rust to be C.
It did work in the end, and I did get an A, mostly because the professor couldn't understand any of the Rust code.
Lol. I have a student right now asking to do an assignment is PowerShell. I'm inclined to allow it and probably give them an A because I don't understand PowerShell XD
Same. I only got through day 3 last year since I didn’t have time to do both the learning and the solving. I think I need a longer term project to give me more focus when learning a new language. This year I’m just sticking with my usual language Elixir, which I always enjoy.
My favourite advent calendar.
Got a private leaderboard with the other sysadmins from work - as well as a few people from our application/development team.
How hard are the puzzles? I've been coding for a while but I'm self taught and I have no idea whether I'm any good or not. I'd love to give them a shot but I have no idea whether they're totally out of reach or doable. What level of developer are they intended for?
they start out easy and get harder as time goes on. Theyre intended for all levels due to that and theres two different difficulties per day (the harder one being unlocked when you do the easy one). Basically anyone can do day 1