AoC 2020 - Day 25: Combo Breaker

In python it felt like cheating. I mean, everything was done in pow() with a third argument for the modulo, and there was next to nothing to do in code.
As a matter of facts, I solved the problem in the REPL, and then I created some code. And – I know I am repetitive – it took me much more time to understand the problem statement than to solve it.
But it was fun!

And with this, AoC 2020 is over.

I can say, that waking up at 6am for a month has taken its toll. If I look back, all the last days I have been complaining about the difficulty to understand the problems; but that’s most probably a symptom of sleep deprivation.
So, this is maybe the biggest learning from this experience: never skip sleep, because then I am much slower, in understanding, and in finding solutions. Hopefully, I will put this in practice :)

Overall, it has been a nice AoC. Problems have been easier than last year, but that was OK for me. Also, I have been able to blog every day comments about the problem, and that’s have been a nice experience.
Most of my solutions have been focused on readability (at least I hope!) but I have spent a lot of time in improving performance, and analyzing Python implementation.
Maybe, next year is going to be high time for switching to a new language.

As a small side topic, this has been my usual morning routine in the last month:

• Wake up at an insane hour (at least, for me)
• Give some food to the cat
• Take a look at the problem
• Tell the cat that the food is fresh, and he should not meow
• Start to work on the problem
• Give some other food to the cat
• Go back to the problem
• Grab the cat and show him that everybody is still asleep, and he should not wake them
• Go back to the problem
• Greet wife woken up by the cat