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I've heard of AoC but never participated in it before How hard would it be for someone to finish the entire thing? I'm planning to use this as an opportunity t

I've heard of AoC but never participated in it before How hard would it be for someone to finish the entire thing? I'm planning to use this as an opportunity to learn Python. I have some programming experience in Java, C, and JS but not that much.

keyle 5y ago
The first 3 days are "easy". The following 5-10 get harder, past the mid month, it takes serious commitment (unless you're a wiz of course!). Overall it is absolutely worth attempting, you'll learn something guaranteed, about algorithms, about the language(s) you chose and about yourself (resilience and determination).
mdwhatcott 5y ago
Check out a few problems from a previous year to get a feel for the difficulty. Generally, the puzzles get harder as the month progresses. Here's last year's calendar: https://adventofcode.com/2020 https://adventofcode.com/2020
pietroppeter 5y ago
It is a great opportunity to do that. I would say do not expect to complete the year (most of us don’t). My bet is you will enjoy it anyway, even if you end up having a hard time (my personal suggestion is to keep trying on new days even when you did not complete previous ones)
bccdee 5y ago
It's very doable, but the problems tend to get longer later in December, so it's easy to fall behind late in the month. It's fun, it's certainly worth giving a shot.
da39a3ee 5y ago
It's doable if you (a) are good at algorithmic programming challenges, (b) don't have a job, and (c) don't need to buy any christmas presents.
- smrq 5y ago
  You're really overselling the time commitment, in my opinion. Last year, only three days (13, 19, 20) took me more than a half hour. I suppose I probably fit criterion A, but the other two are nonsense.
  - da39a3ee 5y ago
    That's really impressive, congrats! But, I'm not a bad programmer and up to around day 15 they regularly took me multiple hours. And around day 15 I started to find them hard as in couldn't do them. Do you remember what it's like to not be able to do a problem? There are lots of normal people reading HN -- surely you remember what they're like? Like, imagine someone who's learning to program, or one of those people who's really keen to do things in an obscure abstract way, but hasn't yet learned how to do things usimply. Have you met programmers from bootcamps who've only been taught a jumble of javascript, mostly framework stuff? I know there aren't many people like that where you work! But they do exist and they are here with us reading HN. It often takes me 15 or 20 minutes to read and understand the problem description. But it sounds like you frequently had solutions written within that time!
    - pantulis 5y ago
      I'm more with you, I guess. I find the increasing difficulty to push my brain more and more to its limits. So I usually just do the first few days in my language of choice for that year and there I go. No need to stress.
    - smrq 5y ago
      That was a very kind way of putting me in my place, and I sincerely appreciate it. I don't have a big competitive coding background or anything like that (AoC is really the only competition I've tried) but I suppose it's undeniable that I have a stronger background in coding in general than many, and it's totally reasonable that without that background, a larger time commitment would be necessary. Fair point!
      - 5y ago

keyle 5y ago

The first 3 days are "easy". The following 5-10 get harder, past the mid month, it takes serious commitment (unless you're a wiz of course!). Overall it is absolutely worth attempting, you'll learn something guaranteed, about algorithms, about the language(s) you chose and about yourself (resilience and determination).

mdwhatcott 5y ago

Check out a few problems from a previous year to get a feel for the difficulty. Generally, the puzzles get harder as the month progresses. Here's last year's calendar: https://adventofcode.com/2020 https://adventofcode.com/2020

pietroppeter 5y ago

It is a great opportunity to do that. I would say do not expect to complete the year (most of us don’t). My bet is you will enjoy it anyway, even if you end up having a hard time (my personal suggestion is to keep trying on new days even when you did not complete previous ones)

bccdee 5y ago

It's very doable, but the problems tend to get longer later in December, so it's easy to fall behind late in the month. It's fun, it's certainly worth giving a shot.

da39a3ee 5y ago

It's doable if you (a) are good at algorithmic programming challenges, (b) don't have a job, and (c) don't need to buy any christmas presents.

smrq 5y ago
You're really overselling the time commitment, in my opinion. Last year, only three days (13, 19, 20) took me more than a half hour. I suppose I probably fit criterion A, but the other two are nonsense.
- da39a3ee 5y ago
  That's really impressive, congrats! But, I'm not a bad programmer and up to around day 15 they regularly took me multiple hours. And around day 15 I started to find them hard as in couldn't do them. Do you remember what it's like to not be able to do a problem? There are lots of normal people reading HN -- surely you remember what they're like? Like, imagine someone who's learning to program, or one of those people who's really keen to do things in an obscure abstract way, but hasn't yet learned how to do things usimply. Have you met programmers from bootcamps who've only been taught a jumble of javascript, mostly framework stuff? I know there aren't many people like that where you work! But they do exist and they are here with us reading HN. It often takes me 15 or 20 minutes to read and understand the problem description. But it sounds like you frequently had solutions written within that time!
  - pantulis 5y ago
    I'm more with you, I guess. I find the increasing difficulty to push my brain more and more to its limits. So I usually just do the first few days in my language of choice for that year and there I go. No need to stress.
  - smrq 5y ago
    That was a very kind way of putting me in my place, and I sincerely appreciate it. I don't have a big competitive coding background or anything like that (AoC is really the only competition I've tried) but I suppose it's undeniable that I have a stronger background in coding in general than many, and it's totally reasonable that without that background, a larger time commitment would be necessary. Fair point!
    - 5y ago