Advent Puzzles 2021
25 days of problem solving
December is here, which means it’s problem solving season!
Maths
Matthew Scroggs has posted the seventh edition of the Advent calendar of maths puzzles on his blog. A new puzzle is unlocked everyday, and you have until the end of the year to submit the answers. The first twenty-four puzzles each have a three digit solutions, and these solutions form the clues required to solve the main puzzle on the 25th. Ten people who solve all puzzles correctly are randomly selected to win a T-shirt!
The problems are mostly from number theory and combinatorics, which are coincidentally two of my favourite areas of mathematics. I believe most people would find the problems interesting and challenging. I have solved the last three editions of this advent, and plan to solve it this year as well.
Programming
This year, we get the seventh Advent of Code by Eric Wastl. Two programming puzzles are unlocked every day. Solving these puzzles requires basic programming skills, but more importantly, critical thinking skills. You are free to use any programming language to solve them. You can even use pen and paper, although I would not recommend it. I recently started learning the functional programming language Haskell, and I am using it to solve these puzzles. I am loving the experience so far.
If you know any other puzzles happening in December (or any other time of the year really), let me know!