AdventOfCode2020 VS AdventOfCode2019

AoC 2020 was like that too.

As a reminder, https://adventofcode.com/2020 started jumping at day 8

I learned Zig first from the official guide at https://ziglang.org/learn/getting-started/, then from https://ziglearn.org/. I also used Zig to go through https://adventofcode.com/2020, which more about solving given tasks. At certain point you will be ready to read source code of Zig's std library in place for documentation.

Go through the AdventOfCode in C# - it will show you what you are missing when it comes to data types and algorithms.

2020 in Rust

Link to full solution

Phew, almost 2 hours of intense coding. This was an incredibly difficult day. Got flashbacks to day 20 of last year.

This is the seventh year puzzles, if you want to check out previous years take a look at: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

The field is called "compiler design". Consider taking a course [1] or buying a book?

A somewhat more playful approach might be to complete the 2019 edition of Advent of Code [2], where you'll learn some preliminaries while implementing the Intcode interpreter.

[1] https://online.stanford.edu/courses/soe-ycscs1-compilers

[2] https://adventofcode.com/2019

The ending of Advent of Code 2019 was amazing. Well, the whole season was awesome, but the ending was amazing.

2019 in Rust

This is the seventh year puzzles, if you want to check out previous years take a look at: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

I believe this is the direct link to the mentioned challenges: https://adventofcode.com/2019

If you want to get started, I would recommend doing Advent of Code 2019 https://adventofcode.com/2019. It goes through and shows how to implement a basic VM. 0x10c / DCPU-16 is also a good place to start. Such simplified CPU-s help you get started and understand the basics without overwhelming you with the complexity :D.

Overall, I think this year felt a lot easier than the last one. Almost no graph problems, no path finding algorithms, and no insane math problems like day 22, 2019. It's really hard finding the right balance. I think 2019 was maybe a bit too hard and discouraged a lot of people. I like that this year was more approachable but perhaps it was a bit too easy towards the end.

Thanks for an amazing year! Definitely a lot easier this year than last one, which was a bit sad. No hard graph problems, requiring path finding algorithms, no insane math problems like day 22 last year. It's hard finding the right balance. I think 2019 was maybe a bit too hard and this year maybe too easy.