Advent of Code
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 8 coding practice platforms by recommenders
Free yearly set of programming puzzles that people use for fun, for learning new languages, and for sharpening problem-solving skills. Some critics say heavy string parsing makes it a weak way to learn most languages.
Free yearly set of programming puzzles that people use for fun, for learning new languages, and for sharpening problem-solving skills. Some critics say heavy string parsing makes it a weak way to learn most languages.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 4 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fun, enjoyable puzzles
“they’re meant to be fun to solve, not a means to an end, but enjoyable for what they are”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” “I also love Advent of Code and look forwards to it all year.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Spotify Wrapped but for LeetCode” “I have always taken AoC as fun and time to learn.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” - Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Marches and Gnats – Coding puzzle game where you program Turing machine”
- Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
- Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
- Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
- Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: SFX – A language where 0.1 and 0.2 = 0.3 and Context is first-class”
- Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: SFX – A language where 0.1 and 0.2 = 0.3 and Context is first-class”
- Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
Good for learning new languages
“I also suggest Advent of Code as a nice way to cut your teeth with expressing thoughts with Prolog.”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “My Gripes with Prolog” “the point of AoC was to write in some language that you always wanted to learn”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” “I recommend the problems to help learning new languages.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” - Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
- Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
Festive yearly tradition and community
“the corny stories about how the elves f up and their ridiculous machines and processes add a lot of flavor”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “FAWK: LLMs can write a language interpreter” “I'm still glad we get to take part in this fun Christmas season tradition”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” “Advent of Code has always felt more like a cozy problem solving festival”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” - Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “FAWK: LLMs can write a language interpreter”
- Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “AI Makes Me Sad”
Sharpens problem-solving skills
“Thank you to the folks who organize this event, for giving me that extra motivation to tie a ribbon around my understanding”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” “I've found aoc/leetcode pretty much reversed the accidental atrophy for me”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Anyone still coding like 2021? Where do you work?” “For me it's a great chance to sharpen the tools in my toolbox.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” - Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy string parsing limits learning
“with the very heavy emphasis on string parsing, I'm not convinced it's a good way to learn most languages”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025” “The vast majority (though not all) of the inputs can be parsed with regex or no real parsing at all.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Advent of Code 2025”
Other coding practice platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other coding practice platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeetCode | 50 | 63 | 44% | 11 | — | — |
| Project Euler | 45 | 6 | 88% | 5 | 12 yrs9 owners | Approved |
| Advent of CodeThis page | 31 | 5 | 86% | 6 | 4 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Codecrafters | 14 | 3 | 82% | 4 | — | Approved |
| AlgoDrill | 13 | 12 | 52% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
36 of the 40 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I love Advent of Code challenges each year”
“I've found aoc/leetcode pretty much reversed the accidental atrophy for me”
“Free site, fun community, but it had a leaderboard.”
“I enjoy Advent of Code and was inspired by it”
“I also suggest Advent of Code as a nice way to cut your teeth with expressing thoughts with Prolog.”
“I also love Advent of Code and look forwards to it all year.”
“Advent of Code is a great idea.”
“I had fun doing that with mine.”
“Thank you to the folks who organize this event, for giving me that extra motivation to tie a ribbon around my understanding”
“Self-contained problems are very educational.”
“Eric always manages to find something each year.”
“This seems like a waste of time for working developer.”
“The global leaderboard was a great way to find really crazy good people and solutions however”
“Advent of code is such a fantastic event.”
“Advent of Code is awesome also of course”
“the website and font being hard to read”
“the point of AoC was to write in some language that you always wanted to learn”
“For me it's a great chance to sharpen the tools in my toolbox.”
“The vast majority (though not all) of the inputs can be parsed with regex or no real parsing at all.”
“I have always taken AoC as fun and time to learn.”
“The point of AoC is that everyone is free to take whatever they want from it.”
“they are so arbitrary - like the worst kind of boardgame”
“Advent of Code has always felt more like a cozy problem solving festival”
“I _love_ the Advent of Code.”
“sadly you can't without logging in with google, github, etc.”
“Still, for starting in a new language can be helpful”
“they’re meant to be fun to solve, not a means to an end, but enjoyable for what they are”
“I think it was a solid idea to get rid of the global leaderboard”
“with the very heavy emphasis on string parsing, I'm not convinced it's a good way to learn most languages”
“I recommend the problems to help learning new languages.”
“I'm still glad we get to take part in this fun Christmas season tradition”
“just enjoy the problem solving and the whimsy”
“Advent of Code has this mass hysteria feel about it (in a good sense)”
“the corny stories about how the elves f up and their ridiculous machines and processes add a lot of flavor”
“more general purpose programming puzzles rather than euler”
“Good prep for Advent of Code in 2 weeks.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.