--- title: 2025’s ‘Advent of Code’ Event Chooses Tradition Over AI description: Advent of Code 2025 introduces significant changes after 10 years: reducing puzzles from 25 to 12, removing global leaderboards, and officially banning AI use.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: 2025’s ‘Advent of Code’ Event Chooses Tradition Over AI | daily.dev og:description: Advent of Code 2025 introduces significant changes after 10 years: reducing puzzles from 25 to 12, removing global leaderboards, and officially banning AI use.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CuPLEF191.png og:image:alt: 2025’s ‘Advent of Code’ Event Chooses Tradition Over AI og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 2025’s ‘Advent of Code’ Event Chooses Tradition Over AI **[The New Stack](https://daily.dev/sources/newstack)** · 9 min read · 34 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary Advent of Code 2025 introduces significant changes after 10 years: reducing puzzles from 25 to 12, removing global leaderboards, and officially banning AI use. Creator Eric Wastl made these adjustments to reduce stress and time commitment while maintaining the event's spirit. Survey data shows 62% of participants use zero AI, with sentiment against AI in the competition increasing. Python remains the most popular language (40%), followed by Rust (16%), with VS Code as the dominant editor and Linux gaining ground over Windows. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@peterwalkley** · 1 upvotes > Using AI is just cheating yourself for this. The point is they're fun puzzles to solve and the joy is in finding the solution by yourself. *So far* (day 6) I'm good :) **@a\_meb\_a** · 0 upvotes > i believe in solid principles ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Advent of Code 2025](https://daily.dev/posts/advent-of-code-2025-wbireyuz5) · Hacker News · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [The results of the 2026 Developer Survey are here\!](https://daily.dev/posts/the-results-of-the-2026-developer-survey-are-here--bux72vf04) · Stack Overflow Blog · 3 upvotes · 1 comments - [Advent of Code in Rust: Winners and Highlights](https://daily.dev/posts/advent-of-code-in-rust-winners-and-highlights-mka1pk9ko) · JetBrains · 34 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"2025’s ‘Advent of Code’ Event Chooses Tradition Over AI","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191"},"datePublished":"2025-11-30T14:05:54.317Z","dateModified":"2025-11-30T14:06:18.012Z","description":"Advent of Code 2025 introduces significant changes after 10 years: reducing puzzles from 25 to 12, removing global leaderboards, and officially banning AI use....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ac21c9b57f735a3b318b297135d89067?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ac21c9b57f735a3b318b297135d89067?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The New Stack","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The New Stack","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/newstack","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/newstack"},"commentCount":2,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":34},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}],"keywords":"ai,general-programming,python,rust","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The New Stack","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/newstack"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"2025’s ‘Advent of Code’ Event Chooses Tradition Over AI"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/2025-s-advent-of-code-event-chooses-tradition-over-ai-cuplef191","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Using AI is just cheating yourself for this. The point is they’re fun puzzles to solve and the joy is in finding the solution by yourself. So far (day 6) I’m good :)","datePublished":"2025-12-06T15:13:51.330Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CuPLEF191#c-byNhWkhbr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Peter Walkley","url":"https://daily.dev/peterwalkley","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3225927?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"i believe in solid principles","datePublished":"2025-12-07T11:58:04.745Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CuPLEF191#c-At02vPju1","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Phillippe Michel Weir","url":"https://daily.dev/a_meb_a","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BwH-uTMq--/f_auto/v1740136991/avatars/avatar_N403VFK9lAHNRwlSAhl1h"}}]} ```