TL;DR

Puzzle 11 in Advent of Code 2016 is interesting and challenging. Let’s start a series!

As you probably already know by now, I enjoyed a lot the most recent run of Advent of Code. What is it? Let’s take it from the about page:

Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill sets and skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like. People use them as a speed contest, interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice problems, or to challenge each other.

Well, the original about page actually has links in the text above, so your odds are probably better there.

I have started going through the puzzles in the 2016 edition and enjoyed them so far. In particular, puzzle 11 proved quite… challenging, and I want to write down a few notes about how I addressed it. You’re very welcome but it might be boring!

The puzzle description is quite extensive and it boils down to something that resembles the tower of Hanoi or other puzzles where you are constrained in the possible moves you can do in any state.

So there you have it, a very challenging puzzle that you’re invited to give a try. In the coming posts I’ll discuss the different approaches that I took to the solution, a few dead ends, and how I eventually made it (with much joy!).

Also, now that I got past it… I can read the corresponding thread in Reddit because I suspect that there’s still a lot to learn!

It’s enough for today… see you next time!