I came across a new puzzle that resembles Advent of Code, one of my favorite yearly coding puzzles, called Everybody Codes. The elves at Advent of Code follow a typical schedule of releasing a new advent calendar in December. I’m not sure what type of cadence Everybody Codes intend to release new puzzles in as they follow an event model comprised of many quests.

Let’s go on a mission

For the first quest, we travel to The Kingdom of Algorithmia where we are personally invited to by King Celeron. Quests are split into three parts: the first part is a warm-up, the second part is a bit more challenging, and the third part is the most challenging. Similar to a real algorithms coding interview, the requirements and constraints are clearly defined.

The structure is similar to Advent of Code where you are given a puzzle to solve with a new input for each part of the quest to test your solution against. The puzzles are designed to be solved with code, though some folks have used spreadsheets to solve them.

Don’t get Rusty

I’m solving the puzzles in Rust. A language I love to use, though haven’t used in a while. I’m a bit rusty, but it’s been fun to get back into the groove of things. It has evolved a lot since I last used it, so I’m learning new things as I go. cargo-nextest is one of the newest tools I’ve been using to run tests and benchmarks. Adding benchmarks via divan has also been a great way to ensure my solutions are optimized.

I’m excited to see what the next quests will bring. I’m hoping to see more puzzles that challenge me to think outside the box and learn new things. These puzzles are a great way to re-energize me with the joy of coding. I’m looking forward to the next new coding puzzle on the block.