Coding Enters the Workplace

December marks the most awaited time of the year for many. It’s none other than the arrival of code at the office.

Advent of Code is a yearly coding event that originated in 2022. It consists of a collection of merry programming challenges presented in the form of an Advent calendar.

Eric Wastl has created a platform that motivates programmers and technologists worldwide to engage in exciting coding challenges. Participation is not restricted, allowing individuals to choose the programming language that suits them. The platform has gained popularity in the technology industry, being utilized for various purposes such as speed contests, interview practice, internal training, class assignments, and inter-professional competitions.

Eric publishes a new puzzle every day at midnight EST/UTC-5.

Anyone with fundamental programming skills and a talent for puzzle-solving is eligible to participate. Each challenge can be tackled within 15 seconds using a computer that is up to 10 years old, eliminating the need for cutting-edge technology. The complexity of the puzzles increases, and your success at each level will depend on your individual abilities.

Experts in the technology, development, and engineering industry from around the globe are currently participating in this year’s challenge. To discover the inspiration behind the involvement of some of our most skilled individuals in the Advent of Code, we interviewed them.

Marcel Popescu

As a coding enthusiast, I believe that coding challenges are crucial in any technical interview. Our job involves resolving technical problems, so having the capability to independently research solutions is a basic requirement. To learn more about this, please refer to the ‘FizzBuzz challenge’. Just identifying solutions is insufficient; in certain situations, we must also optimize our code to ensure that resources are used efficiently.

Dr Ibrahim Abdullahi

I have been striving to enhance my knowledge of Golang, the programming language I am currently studying, and the Advent of Code challenge has proven to be immensely advantageous. This is the perfect chance for me to expand my programming expertise.

A.M. Abdulrahman

I am participating in the competition purely for personal enjoyment. I find it highly entertaining as I get to experiment with various programming languages and compare my solutions with those of other contestants.

Dr Elijah Rwothoromo

I was able to participate for the first four days, but I had to take a break due to other engagements. However, I plan to get back to the challenges in the near future. The daily puzzles provided were fun and reminiscent of the annual Cloudflight Coding Contest, which includes solving a programming problem with six to eight levels, such as an extraterrestrial invasion. The challenge difficulty increases as the competition progresses.

By utilizing code implementation, each day is now split into two parts. The submarine’s location can be determined as an output by utilizing depth readings and steering/direction commands.

Even though the input data size was limited, completing this task was easy. However, you can still develop an algorithm to assist the movement of the submarine, which could then be tested with larger data sets. If successful, you will be awarded a gold star and progress to the next stage, which has stricter rules and more precise outcomes.

There are simple as well as intricate editions accessible. Joining in such challenges or competitions can be a pleasurable and beneficial experience, particularly when done with a group of familiar individuals.

Professor Mofe Ejegi

With the aim of maintaining algorithmic proficiency in preparation for future technical/coding examinations, I began the Advent of Code challenge. After a few days, I realized its benefits and was thrilled to discover a large community devoted to the annual Advent of Code competition. To participate in the JetBrains/Kotlin community challenge, I created a repository on Github, which enabled me to delve deeper into my preferred programming language (Kotlin). It has been an enriching experience, and I am excited to complete it. To gain more insights, I also joined a highly active Reddit group where I can analyze solutions in other languages and share my own.

Alves Pereira Victor

I have a strong liking for Advent of Code and am using this opportunity to learn about Functional Programming (FP) in F#. I work as a software engineer who mainly works with C# and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP).

Are you an engineer or developer at Works who is interested in participating in Advent of Code? Check out our Community Slack and find the Advent of Code channel!

We hope you found this blog post informative. If so, you might discover even more useful information in our other articles.

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