Today is the last day of this year’s Advent of Code, cut from 24.5 days to 12[1]. Overall I think the reduced scope is a good thing, both because it reduces stress coming up to the holidays, and it hopefully keeps the creator Eric Wastl’s motivation up so he can continue with this project.
We missed a few “favorites” this year. There was no game of life, nor any register rodeo. Maybe that will be a theme in the coming years.
The elimination of the global leaderboard has not affected me, as I have never even tried to compete. It was many years ago when I had the ambition to be even among the first 10,000 solvers of a day. Even so, I believe it has removed a lot of stress for everyone, not just the creator, but also from those who felt that the leaderboard was “the thing” that mattered.
Its elimination has also cut down on the heat around GenAI solutions. Previously, someone could credibly state that they got a place on the leaderboard by asking ChatGPT or Claude or whatever was the hot model du jour to solve a problem, setting off a big round of recrimination and angst. Now, those people can only boast on the subreddit and be exposed as the sad losers they are.
I certainly hope that this contest continues for many years to come!
[1] if you solved all previous year’s puzzles, the last star is given “for free”.