Advent of Code: Solving Puzzles With Python

Advent of Code: Solving Puzzles With Python

Philipp Acsany
Philipp Acsany 22 Lessons 46m basics career testing
Start Now Rate and Review

Advent of Code is an online Advent calendar where you’ll find new programming puzzles offered each day from December 1 to 25. While you can solve the puzzles at any time, the excitement when new puzzles unlock is really something special. You can participate in Advent of Code in any programming language—including Python!

With the help of this Code Conversation, you’ll be ready to start solving puzzles and earning your first gold stars.

In this video course, you’ll learn:

  • What an online Advent calendar is
  • How solving puzzles can advance your programming skills
  • How you can participate in Advent of Code

Advent of Code puzzles are designed to be approachable by anyone with an interest in problem-solving. You don’t need a heavy computer science background to participate. Instead, Advent of Code is a great arena for learning new skills and testing out new features of Python.

What’s Included:

Downloadable Resources:

Start Now

Getting Into Advent of Code

4 Lessons 6m

  1. 1. Advent of Code: Solving Puzzles With Python (Overview)00:54
  2. 2. Get to Know Advent of Code02:24
  3. 3. Collect Stars to Save Christmas01:55
  4. 4. Code Along01:40

Solving the First Puzzle

7 Lessons 19m

  1. 1. Understand the Puzzle03:51
  2. 2. Focus on Key Points in the Puzzle Text01:33
  3. 3. Start Picking Apart the Input Stream02:56
  4. 4. Compare Characters04:00
  5. 5. Find the Example Marker02:29
  6. 6. Solve the First Puzzle02:38
  7. 7. Collect Your First Star01:33

Solving the Second Puzzle

7 Lessons 15m

  1. 1. Behold: The Twist02:42
  2. 2. Use Sets to Remove Duplicates03:12
  3. 3. Find a More General Approach01:22
  4. 4. Loop Over Candidates03:20
  5. 5. Stop at the First Marker01:21
  6. 6. Collect Your Second Star01:50
  7. 7. Admire the Advent Calendar01:20

Wrapping Things Up

4 Lessons 5m

  1. 1. Refactor to Use a Function00:47
  2. 2. Review the Solution02:38
  3. 3. Solve the Puzzle Your Way01:01
  4. 4. Advent of Code: Solving Puzzles With Python (Summary)01:27
Start Now

About Philipp Acsany

Philipp is a core member of the Real Python team. He creates tutorials, records video courses, and hosts Office Hours sessions to support your journey to becoming a skilled and fulfilled Python developer.

» More about Philipp

Each tutorial at Real Python is created by a team of developers so that it meets our high quality standards. The team members who worked on this tutorial are:

Aldren

Christopher

Geir Arne

Kate

Martin

Tappan

Bartosz

Sadie

← Browse All Courses