ADSP: Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs Episode 267: Advent of Code 2025 (Day 2 & 3)
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Jan 2, 2026 Conor and Ben dive into the Advent of Code 2025, discussing their strategies for solving days 2 and 3 challenges. They share frustrations with implementation and the evolving difficulty of the puzzles. Ben reveals his method of generating invalid numbers to streamline his approach. The duo explores language tradeoffs, emphasizing memoization and the quirks of different programming languages. They even debate recursion versus iteration and ponder Haskell’s functional patterns. Join them for insights and friendly programming banter!
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Shorter Event Concentrates Difficulty
- Advent of Code 2025 was shortened to 12 days, which raises the chance of earlier harder puzzles.
- Ben and Conor note this concentrates difficulty and changes pacing compared to prior years.
Stopped Midway Due To Implementation Aversion
- Conor stopped after part B of day three because he didn't want to implement the solution despite understanding it.
- He describes being 'upset by the difficulty' and preferring not to code that part.
Invalid IDs Defined By Equal Partitions
- Day two identifies 'invalid IDs' by repeated equal partitions and only even-length two-part repeats count for part one.
- Part two generalizes to any equal-length repeated partitioning of the string.