While the snow hasn't yet made its first appearance for this year here in Turku, a peek at the calendar reveals that Christmas is right around the corner. For developers, that means Advent of Code is approaching.

What's Advent of Code?

Advent of Code is an annual Christmas calendar of programming puzzles created by Eric Wastl. He describes it as:

Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill sets and skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like. People use them as interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice problems, a speed contest, or to challenge each other.

You don't need a computer science background to participate - just a little programming knowledge and some problem solving skills will get you pretty far. Nor do you need a fancy computer; every problem has a solution that completes in at most 15 seconds on ten-year-old hardware.

It's a fun way to learn new programming skills or even compete with others in the leaderboards.

Every year, Eric creates 49 puzzles that are revealed daily: you get one every morning and if you solve the first part, you're rewarded with a second puzzle that is usually a more complex variation of the first part.

They usually include a bit of Christmas lore, a puzzle description, example sample and an input file. To confirm you've solved the puzzle correctly, you then input a number (sometimes rarely it's a string) and the system will either reward you with a star or tell you that your solution isn't quite right yet.

You can freely choose which puzzles you solve and it's only the second part of each day that's locked behind a right solution. If you skip a day, the next day's puzzle will be available to you.

At TurkuDev Discord, we have an #adventofcode channel where you can join the solving even before the sprint.

I have also a couple of blog posts in my personal blog about Advent of Code that are worth checking out: Advent of Code is just around the corner talks about what and why of the calendar. In Tips for Advent of Code, I share my general tips to make it a more enjoyable experience. And in Python prep for Advent of Code 2022 I share some of the handy Python standard library tools and techniques I've learned over the years of solving Advent of Code puzzles.

Let's solve them together

A great part of Advent of Code is that it's a great way to learn together. We are hosting a sprint on December 12th 17-21 at Konttori where you can join with your laptop and solve puzzles together with other Python developers. It's up to you which puzzles you want to solve: you can work on the puzzle of the 12th, any puzzle of the year before that or if you've already done them all, any puzzles from the years before.

You can sign up to the event at Meetabit.

Our sprints are hosted so developers can get together to write code. Asking questions and having discussions is encouraged. Avoid spoilers though: everyone should have an opportunity to solve the puzzles on their own if they so desire.

All you need to bring is a laptop. We recommend signing up to Advent of Code and setting up Python on your laptop before the event but if needed, help will be given with both of them as well.

There's no food or drinks provided in this sprint but there's a few restaurants and K-Market Puhakka close by so you should take care of yourself.

After the sprint, we'll continue the evening across the street at Portti.