Last year I learned about the Advent of Code, a series of holiday-themed programming challenges that are released similarly to an advent calendar. So, each day at 12am EST, a new challenge is unlocked and you can earn points based on how quickly you solve the challenge. JetBrains offers up prizes1 for participants who complete the challenge in Kotlin (or at least they did last year and are doing so again this year), and they have a template you can use to get started with if you'd like to be entered to win one of their prizes. I'm not sure if they actually say what the prizes are, but I'd guess swag and/or licenses to their products. At any rate, I chose to use a variety of different languages last year, starting with Kotlin but also trying out Python and Rust. I made it about a week in before I tapered off. I can't remember if I just found the challenges too difficult or went on vacation and forgot about it, but this year I'm hoping to make it at least two weeks in. I've also chosen Kotlin for my solutions for this year, though I don't think I'll branch out to other languages. I think it'll be easier to just stay focused and stick with a language I use every day, which I'm hoping helps me stay motivated to see this thing through, or at the very least make it further than I did last year. If you haven't already checked it out, I highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun and a great way for programmers to celebrate the holidays. Happy coding!
