Advent of Code is an annual programming competition with a Christmas-y theme. It runs from December 1st to the 25th.
I'm slowly working my way through all the AoC puzzles starting from the first year it ran in 2015. My goal is to get all fifty stars for each year using Kotlin. This repository is a record of this multi-year exercise.
- AoC 2024 - 8/50 ⭐
- AoC 2023 - 18/50 ⭐
- AoC 2022 - 22/50 ⭐
- AoC 2021 - 16/50 ⭐
- AoC 2020 - 0/50 ⭐
- AoC 2019 - 0/50 ⭐
- AoC 2018 - 0/50 ⭐
- AoC 2017 - 0/50 ⭐
- AoC 2016 - 2/50 ⭐
- AoC 2015 - 50/50 ⭐
I'm not much of a competitive programmer so I don't expect to solve these puzzles faster than average. I am, however, big on doing TDD and refactoring for simplicity, clarity, and ease of maintenance. I generally don't play code golf with any of these solutions but as I strive for clean code, where "clean" means it's easy to understand and work with, I often find that it's less confusing and helps me solve the problem faster. This includes writing at least one automated test for each solution.
Having said that, you might note that I sometimes go overboard and end up with something that looks over-engineered, which it probably is. My general approach to these problems is going for clarity rather brevity. Sometimes I refactor for clarity and get less code. Other times, I end up with more code than I started. Feel free to add a comment or two to call out anything you might question as good practice. If you have suggestions on alternative approaches, that would be even better and greatly appreciated.
I'm using a modified form of semantic commit messages that's greatly influenced by Arlo Belshee's Commit Notation.
| Prefix | Name | Intention |
|---|---|---|
f F |
Feature | New feature or functionality |
b B |
Bugfix | Bug fix |
r R |
Refactoring | Refactoring code, both prod and test |
d D |
Documentation | Adding/changing documentation |
t T |
Test | Adding missing tests, refactoring tests |
s S |
Structure/Style | Formatting, project structure, organization |
c C |
Chore | Updating grunt tasks, etc.; no code changes |
Arlo uses lowercase vs. Uppercase prefix to signal the risk level: lowercase indicates less risk involved than uppercase prefix.
Arlo also adds special characters to the prefix as "qualifiers". I'm going to use these qualifiers:
| Qualifier Mark | Intention |
|---|---|
++ |
Changes with new passing tests |
!! |
Changes with existing tests passing |
%% |
Changes with broken tests |
** |
No automated tests, or unfinished implementation |
I've learned quite a few lessons since I started learning Kotlin by solving AoC puzzles. I couldn't have done it without help and inspiration from others though so I want to take a moment to acknowledge the folks who are much smarter and better than me in Kotlin and in programming in general.
- Todd Ginsberg - I saw some posts from Todd on Reddit and the Kotlin programs he writes are generally very clear and elegant.
- Andrew Pickett - I know Andrew from work. He's a beast. As far as I can tell, he got all the stars. If you don't know what that means, he's solved ALL the puzzles from when Advent of Code started in 2015. So it bears saying again, when it comes to AoC, Andrew is a beast. He does his solutions in Python as far as I can tell but they are still really good examples to learn from.
- Stephan van Hulst - Stephan is a fellow moderator at CodeRanch. He's a really good programmer. He always has good takes on problems and how they might be solved in Kotlin or whatever language he's using at the moment.
- Other folks who hang out in the Programming Diversions forum at CodeRanch.com: Liutauras Vilda, Tim Cooke, Mike Simmons, Piet Souris, and others who have provided feedback, insights, and inspiration.
- (more to follow)
I want to acknowledge and thank Eric Wastl, creator and maintainer of Advent of Code. I encourage you to donate and support Eric so he can continue the awesome work of bringing joy to countless developers every December. May his project continue to grow and prosper.