I'd hardly say it relies _heavily_ on obscure math tricks. Typically there's one or two days which require, perhaps, an undergraduate level of math which people

I'd hardly say it relies _heavily_ on obscure math tricks. Typically there's one or two days which require, perhaps, an undergraduate level of math which people would likely get in an intro class during a CS degree. Most of the problems are around searching a space for some solution or just simulating some state changes. Recent problems involved implementing a higher dimensional version of Conway's game of life[0], a simple arithmetic expression evaluator [1], or a simulator for a simple number game[2] e.g. The most recent one[3] involves solving a jigsaw puzzle by using a simple backtracking search (or any number of other methods). It's a bit complex, but not reliant on a particular math trick. The vast majority of the problems in advent of code shouldn't require any math tricks, though they're often complex and involved, particularly as the month goes on. [0] https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/17 https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/17 [1] https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/18 https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/18 [2] https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/15 https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/15 [3] https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/20 https://adventofcode.com/2020/day/20