Christmas is just around the corner and of course, we just can’t miss Advent of Code this year! The Advent of Code is a puzzle “competition” that lasts for 25 days, from December 1st to Christmas Day, with increasing difficulty. We absolutely love it and we are preparing something really special for you!

Without giving away any spoilers, here’s a hint: subscribe to our YouTube channel, and you’ll discover something incredibly valuable during the first 25 days of December.

What is the Advent of Code?

Advent of Code is a unique Advent calendar featuring small programming puzzles suitable for various skill sets and levels. These puzzles can be solved using any programming language of your choice and were created byEric Wastl. Participants utilize them for interview preparation, company training, university coursework, practice problems, engaging in speed contests, or challenging one another.

Participation doesn’t require a computer science background; a modest understanding of programming and some problem-solving skills can take you a long way. Additionally, you don’t need an advanced computer setup; each problem has a solution that can be completed in 15 seconds or less even on hardware that’s a decade old.

The system is well-organized, with a large number of participants, and both the problem statements and the method for checking answers are well thought out!

The problems focus more on algorithmic aspects than architecture, making it a perfect hobby to complement what we typically apply to projects. Knowing that there are people who participate regularly and considering that there might be individuals who have never tried it, we thought it would be cool to propose it at a company level and provide the opportunity to use the Advent of Code as a learning event for those interested. The overall idea is to learn and explore things that we don’t usually encounter.

Key features of the Advent of Code

• Variety of Puzzles: The challenges cover a diverse range of topics and difficulty levels, allowing participants with different skill sets to find engaging problems.
• Daily Format: A new puzzle is released each day, building up to Christmas Day. The puzzles often have a narrative theme or story that unfolds as participants progress through the event.
• Language Agnostic: Participants can solve the puzzles using the programming language of their choice, making it accessible to a broad audience with different language preferences.
• No Prerequisites: While a basic understanding of programming is helpful, Advent of Code is designed to be inclusive.
• Free and Open: Participation in Advent of Code is free, and the challenges, as well as input data, are openly accessible on the official website.

Advantages for programmers

Engaging in the Advent of Code challenge on a daily basis offers a multitude of advantages for programmers including:

• Problem-solving skills : The Advent of Code presents a diverse set of challenges that span various difficulty levels. Tackling these problems consistently sharpens your algorithmic thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Consistent learning: By approaching problems with different languages, you can broaden your understanding and fluency in various programming languages.
• Community collaboration: Participating in the Advent of Code connects you with a vast and diverse community of developers worldwide. Collaborating, discussing strategies, and sharing solutions provide valuable insights into different approaches to problem-solving.
• Creativity: The Advent of Code problems are crafted to be intriguing and often unconventional. Tackling a new challenge each day hones your ability to think creatively and approach problems from different angles.
• Portfolio building: Successfully completing Advent of Code challenges can serve as a tangible record of your achievements. Sharing your solutions or progress on platforms like GitHub can contribute to building a robust coding portfolio.

Apiumhub initiative

Starting on December 1st, we are going to be solving some of the puzzles from the Advent of Code with our YouTube community! Whether you’re an experienced developer looking to sharpen your skills or a coding enthusiast, this is the perfect opportunity to engage and learn.

There will be new videos posted on our YouTube channel that explain the solution to the most interesting challenges and solutions using mostly Kotlin. The Apiumhub experts that will participate in the challenge are:

Diego Ojeda: Senior Android developer with over 8 years of experience on the platform. Passionate about software architecture, best practices, design patterns & teamwork.

Rafael Ruiz: Senior software developer with over 8 years of experience working with different code languages, able to work as a FullStack Developer, with the best skills in the backend side. Passionate about new technologies, and the best software development practices involved in a DevOps culture.

Eric Martori : senior software engineer with over 6 years of experience working as an Android Developer. Passionate about clean architecture, clean code, and design patterns, pragmatism is used to find the best technical solution to deliver the best mobile app with maintainable, secure, and valuable code and architecture.

Stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe here. You will not want to miss this!