Rules
This challenge is based on Advent of
Code,
an annual Christmas-themed programming competition consisting of daily programming puzzles released from December
1 to 25.
Our team participates through a private leaderboard as a friendly internal Christmas challenge.
Competition Scope
We compete only on a selected subset of the official Advent of Code problems.
For 2024, the selected days were 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 17, 21, 25.
The selection for 2025 will be announced later.
Consequently, “next day” in our scoring system refers to the next selected puzzle day rather than the
next calendar day.
Joining the Leaderboard
- Create an account on Advent of
Code.
- Navigate to Leaderboard → Private Leaderboard → Join.
- Enter the invitation code shared in our internal chat.
Once joined, your results will automatically appear in our private leaderboard.
Custom Scoring Rules
Each solved puzzle awards points according to three components:
- Base score \(B\): fixed value for solving a puzzle (default \(B = 1\)).
- Extra score \(E\): proportional to the number of participants who did not solve that
puzzle.
\(E = k \times (N - n_{\text{solved}})\), with \(k = 1\) by default.
- Bonus \(Bo\): time-based reward depending on completion speed, measured relative to the next
selected puzzle release:
- Full bonus if solved before the next selected day’s puzzle is released.
- Half bonus if solved before the following selected day.
- No bonus otherwise.
The full bonus value defaults to \(\frac{N}{2}\), where \(N\) is the total number of participants.
Scoring Formula
\[
S = B + E + Bo
\]
with
\[
\begin{aligned}
E &= k \cdot (N - n_{\text{solved}}) \\
Bo &=
\begin{cases}
\tfrac{N}{2}, & \text{if solved before next selected day;}\\[4pt]
\tfrac{N}{4}, & \text{if solved before the subsequent selected day;}\\[4pt]
0, & \text{otherwise.}
\end{cases}
\end{aligned}
\]
Examples
- Example 1: \(N = 10\), \(n_{\text{solved}} = 7\), solved before the next selected day.
\(B = 1,\; E = 1 \times (10 - 7) = 3,\; Bo = 5 \Rightarrow S = 9.\)
- Example 2: \(N = 10\), \(n_{\text{solved}} = 8\), solved after two selected days.
\(B = 1,\; E = 1 \times (10 - 8) = 2,\; Bo = 0 \Rightarrow S = 3.\)