Projects from the Advent of Code daily challenges
The elves are running low on wrapping paper, and so they need to submit an order for more. They have a list of the dimensions (length l, width w, and height h) of each present, and only want to order exactly as much as they need.
Fortunately, every present is a box (a perfect right rectangular prism), which makes calculating the required wrapping paper for each gift a little easier: find the surface area of the box, which is 2lw + 2wh + 2hl. The elves also need a little extra paper for each present: the area of the smallest side.
All numbers in the elves' list are in feet. How many total square feet of wrapping paper should they order?
--- Part Two ---
The elves are also running low on ribbon. Ribbon is all the same width, so they only have to worry about the length they need to order, which they would again like to be exact.
The ribbon required to wrap a present is the shortest distance around its sides, or the smallest perimeter of any one face. Each present also requires a bow made out of ribbon as well; the feet of ribbon required for the perfect bow is equal to the cubic feet of volume of the present. Don't ask how they tie the bow, though; they'll never tell.
How many total feet of ribbon should they order?
Santa is delivering presents to an infinite two-dimensional grid of houses.
He begins by delivering a present to the house at his starting location, and then an elf at the North Pole calls him via radio and tells him where to move next. Moves are always exactly one house to the north (^), south (v), east (>), or west (<). After each move, he delivers another present to the house at his new location.
However, the elf back at the north pole has had a little too much eggnog, and so his directions are a little off, and Santa ends up visiting some houses more than once. How many houses receive at least one present?
--- Part Two ---
The next year, to speed up the process, Santa creates a robot version of himself, Robo-Santa, to deliver presents with him.
Santa and Robo-Santa start at the same location (delivering two presents to the same starting house), then take turns moving based on instructions from the elf, who is eggnoggedly reading from the same script as the previous year.
This year, how many houses receive at least one present?
Santa needs help mining some AdventCoins (very similar to bitcoins) to use as gifts for all the economically forward-thinking little girls and boys.
To do this, he needs to find MD5 hashes which, in hexadecimal, start with at least five zeroes. The input to the MD5 hash is some secret key (your puzzle input, given below) followed by a number in decimal. To mine AdventCoins, you must find Santa the lowest positive number (no leading zeroes: 1, 2, 3, ...) that produces such a hash.
For example:
If your secret key is abcdef, the answer is 609043, because the MD5 hash of abcdef609043 starts with five zeroes (000001dbbfa...), and it is the lowest such number to do so. If your secret key is pqrstuv, the lowest number it combines with to make an MD5 hash starting with five zeroes is 1048970; that is, the MD5 hash of pqrstuv1048970 looks like 000006136ef....
--- Part Two ---
Now find one that starts with six zeroes.
Santa needs help figuring out which strings in his text file are naughty or nice.
A nice string is one with all of the following properties:
How many strings are nice?
Realizing the error of his ways, Santa has switched to a better model of determining whether a string is naughty or nice. None of the old rules apply, as they are all clearly ridiculous.
Now, a nice string is one with all of the following properties:
How many strings are nice under these new rules?
Because your neighbors keep defeating you in the holiday house decorating contest year after year, you've decided to deploy one million lights in a 1000x1000 grid.
Furthermore, because you've been especially nice this year, Santa has mailed you instructions on how to display the ideal lighting configuration.
Lights in your grid are numbered from 0 to 999 in each direction; the lights at each corner are at 0,0, 0,999, 999,999, and 999,0. The instructions include whether to turn on, turn off, or toggle various inclusive ranges given as coordinate pairs. Each coordinate pair represents opposite corners of a rectangle, inclusive; a coordinate pair like 0,0 through 2,2 therefore refers to 9 lights in a 3x3 square. The lights all start turned off.
To defeat your neighbors this year, all you have to do is set up your lights by doing the instructions Santa sent you in order.
After following the instructions, how many lights are lit?
--- Part Two ---
You just finish implementing your winning light pattern when you realize you mistranslated Santa's message from Ancient Nordic Elvish.
The light grid you bought actually has individual brightness controls; each light can have a brightness of zero or more. The lights all start at zero.
The phrase turn on actually means that you should increase the brightness of those lights by 1.
The phrase turn off actually means that you should decrease the brightness of those lights by 1, to a minimum of zero.
The phrase toggle actually means that you should increase the brightness of those lights by 2.
What is the total brightness of all lights combined after following Santa's instructions?
This year, Santa brought little Bobby Tables a set of wires and bitwise logic gates! Unfortunately, little Bobby is a little under the recommended age range, and he needs help assembling the circuit.
Each wire has an identifier (some lowercase letters) and can carry a 16-bit signal (a number from 0 to 65535). A signal is provided to each wire by a gate, another wire, or some specific value. Each wire can only get a signal from one source, but can provide its signal to multiple destinations. A gate provides no signal until all of its inputs have a signal.
The included instructions booklet describes how to connect the parts together: x AND y -> z means to connect wires x and y to an AND gate, and then connect its output to wire z.
For example:
Other possible gates include OR (bitwise OR) and RSHIFT (right-shift). If, for some reason, you'd like to emulate the circuit instead, almost all programming languages (for example, C, JavaScript, or Python) provide operators for these gates.
In little Bobby's kit's instructions booklet (provided as your puzzle input), what signal is ultimately provided to wire a?
--- Part Two ---
Now, take the signal you got on wire a, override wire b to that signal, and reset the other wires (including wire a). What new signal is ultimately provided to wire a?
This year is the Reindeer Olympics! Reindeer can fly at high speeds, but must rest occasionally to recover their energy. Santa would like to know which of his reindeer is fastest, and so he has them race.
Reindeer can only either be flying (always at their top speed) or resting (not moving at all), and always spend whole seconds in either state.
Given the descriptions of each reindeer (in your puzzle input), after exactly 2503 seconds, what distance has the winning reindeer traveled?
-- Part Two ---
Seeing how reindeer move in bursts, Santa decides he's not pleased with the old scoring system.
Instead, at the end of each second, he awards one point to the reindeer currently in the lead. (If there are multiple reindeer tied for the lead, they each get one point.) He keeps the traditional 2503 second time limit, of course, as doing otherwise would be entirely ridiculous.
Today, you set out on the task of perfecting your milk-dunking cookie recipe. All you have to do is find the right balance of ingredients.
Your recipe leaves room for exactly 100 teaspoons of ingredients. You make a list of the remaining ingredients you could use to finish the recipe (your puzzle input) and their properties per teaspoon:
capacity (how well it helps the cookie absorb milk) durability (how well it keeps the cookie intact when full of milk) flavor (how tasty it makes the cookie) texture (how it improves the feel of the cookie) calories (how many calories it adds to the cookie) You can only measure ingredients in whole-teaspoon amounts accurately, and you have to be accurate so you can reproduce your results in the future. The total score of a cookie can be found by adding up each of the properties (negative totals become 0) and then multiplying together everything except calories.
--- Part Two ---
Your cookie recipe becomes wildly popular! Someone asks if you can make another recipe that has exactly 500 calories per cookie (so they can use it as a meal replacement). Keep the rest of your award-winning process the same (100 teaspoons, same ingredients, same scoring system).
Your Aunt Sue has given you a wonderful gift, and you'd like to send her a thank you card. However, there's a small problem: she signed it "From, Aunt Sue".
You have 500 Aunts named "Sue".
So, to avoid sending the card to the wrong person, you need to figure out which Aunt Sue (which you conveniently number 1 to 500, for sanity) gave you the gift. You open the present and, as luck would have it, good ol' Aunt Sue got you a My First Crime Scene Analysis Machine! Just what you wanted. Or needed, as the case may be.
The My First Crime Scene Analysis Machine (MFCSAM for short) can detect a few specific compounds in a given sample, as well as how many distinct kinds of those compounds there are. According to the instructions, these are what the MFCSAM can detect:
children, by human DNA age analysis. cats. It doesn't differentiate individual breeds. Several seemingly random breeds of dog: samoyeds, pomeranians, akitas, and vizslas. goldfish. No other kinds of fish. trees, all in one group. cars, presumably by exhaust or gasoline or something. perfumes, which is handy, since many of your Aunts Sue wear a few kinds. In fact, many of your Aunts Sue have many of these. You put the wrapping from the gift into the MFCSAM. It beeps inquisitively at you a few times and then prints out a message on ticker tape:
You make a list of the things you can remember about each Aunt Sue. Things missing from your list aren't zero - you simply don't remember the value.
What is the number of the Sue that got you the gift?
The elves bought too much eggnog again - 150 liters this time. To fit it all into your refrigerator, you'll need to move it into smaller containers. You take an inventory of the capacities of the available containers.
Filling all containers entirely, how many different combinations of containers can exactly fit all 150 liters of eggnog?
After the million lights incident, the fire code has gotten stricter: now, at most ten thousand lights are allowed. You arrange them in a 100x100 grid.
Never one to let you down, Santa again mails you instructions on the ideal lighting configuration. With so few lights, he says, you'll have to resort to animation.
Start by setting your lights to the included initial configuration (your puzzle input). A # means "on", and a . means "off".
Then, animate your grid in steps, where each step decides the next configuration based on the current one. Each light's next state (either on or off) depends on its current state and the current states of the eight lights adjacent to it (including diagonals). Lights on the edge of the grid might have fewer than eight neighbors; the missing ones always count as "off".
The state a light should have next is based on its current state (on or off) plus the number of neighbors that are on:
All of the lights update simultaneously; they all consider the same current state before moving to the next.
In your grid of 100x100 lights, given your initial configuration, how many lights are on after 100 steps?
You flip the instructions over; Santa goes on to point out that this is all just an implementation of Conway's Game of Life. At least, it was, until you notice that something's wrong with the grid of lights you bought: four lights, one in each corner, are stuck on and can't be turned off. The example above will actually run like this:
In your grid of 100x100 lights, given your initial configuration, but with the four corners always in the on state, how many lights are on after 100 steps?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is sick! His nose isn't shining very brightly, and he needs medicine.
Red-Nosed Reindeer biology isn't similar to regular reindeer biology; Rudolph is going to need custom-made medicine. Unfortunately, Red-Nosed Reindeer chemistry isn't similar to regular reindeer chemistry, either.
The North Pole is equipped with a Red-Nosed Reindeer nuclear fusion/fission plant, capable of constructing any Red-Nosed Reindeer molecule you need. It works by starting with some input molecule and then doing a series of replacements, one per step, until it has the right molecule.
However, the machine has to be calibrated before it can be used. Calibration involves determining the number of molecules that can be generated in one step from a given starting point.
Your puzzle input describes all of the possible replacements and, at the bottom, the medicine molecule for which you need to calibrate the machine. How many distinct molecules can be created after all the different ways you can do one replacement on the medicine molecule?
--- Part Two ---
Now that the machine is calibrated, you're ready to begin molecule fabrication.
Molecule fabrication always begins with just a single electron, e, and applying replacements one at a time, just like the ones during calibration.
How long will it take to make the medicine? Given the available replacements and the medicine molecule in your puzzle input, what is the fewest number of steps to go from e to the medicine molecule?
To keep the Elves busy, Santa has them deliver some presents by hand, door-to-door. He sends them down a street with infinite houses numbered sequentially: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on.
Each Elf is assigned a number, too, and delivers presents to houses based on that number:
There are infinitely many Elves, numbered starting with 1. Each Elf delivers presents equal to ten times his or her number at each house.
What is the lowest house number of the house to get at least as many presents as the number in your puzzle input?
The Elves decide they don't want to visit an infinite number of houses. Instead, each Elf will stop after delivering presents to 50 houses. To make up for it, they decide to deliver presents equal to eleven times their number at each house.
With these changes, what is the new lowest house number of the house to get at least as many presents as the number in your puzzle input?
The B module has the correct answer.
Little Henry Case got a new video game for Christmas. It's an RPG, and he's stuck on a boss. He needs to know what equipment to buy at the shop. He hands you the controller.
In this game, the player (you) and the enemy (the boss) take turns attacking. The player always goes first. Each attack reduces the opponent's hit points by at least 1. The first character at or below 0 hit points loses.
Damage dealt by an attacker each turn is equal to the attacker's damage score minus the defender's armor score. An attacker always does at least 1 damage. So, if the attacker has a damage score of 8, and the defender has an armor score of 3, the defender loses 5 hit points. If the defender had an armor score of 300, the defender would still lose 1 hit point.
Your damage score and armor score both start at zero. They can be increased by buying items in exchange for gold. You start with no items and have as much gold as you need. Your total damage or armor is equal to the sum of those stats from all of your items. You have 100 hit points.
You must buy exactly one weapon; no dual-wielding. Armor is optional, but you can't use more than one. You can buy 0-2 rings (at most one for each hand). You must use any items you buy. The shop only has one of each item, so you can't buy, for example, two rings of Damage +3.
You have 100 hit points. The boss's actual stats are in your puzzle input. What is the least amount of gold you can spend and still win the fight?
--- Part Two ---
Turns out the shopkeeper is working with the boss, and can persuade you to buy whatever items he wants. The other rules still apply, and he still only has one of each item.
What is the most amount of gold you can spend and still lose the fight?
Little Henry Case decides that defeating bosses with swords and stuff is boring. Now he's playing the game with a wizard. Of course, he gets stuck on another boss and needs your help again.
In this version, combat still proceeds with the player and the boss taking alternating turns. The player still goes first. Now, however, you don't get any equipment; instead, you must choose one of your spells to cast. The first character at or below 0 hit points loses.
Since you're a wizard, you don't get to wear armor, and you can't attack normally. However, since you do magic damage, your opponent's armor is ignored, and so the boss effectively has zero armor as well. As before, if armor (from a spell, in this case) would reduce damage below 1, it becomes 1 instead - that is, the boss' attacks always deal at least 1 damage.
On each of your turns, you must select one of your spells to cast. If you cannot afford to cast any spell, you lose. Spells cost mana; you start with 500 mana, but have no maximum limit. You must have enough mana to cast a spell, and its cost is immediately deducted when you cast it. Your spells are Magic Missile, Drain, Shield, Poison, and Recharge.
Effects all work the same way. Effects apply at the start of both the player's turns and the boss' turns. Effects are created with a timer (the number of turns they last); at the start of each turn, after they apply any effect they have, their timer is decreased by one. If this decreases the timer to zero, the effect ends. You cannot cast a spell that would start an effect which is already active. However, effects can be started on the same turn they end.
You start with 50 hit points and 500 mana points. The boss's actual stats are in your puzzle input. What is the least amount of mana you can spend and still win the fight? (Do not include mana recharge effects as "spending" negative mana.)
--- Part Two ---
On the next run through the game, you increase the difficulty to hard.
At the start of each player turn (before any other effects apply), you lose 1 hit point. If this brings you to or below 0 hit points, you lose.
With the same starting stats for you and the boss, what is the least amount of mana you can spend and still win the fight?
Little Jane Marie just got her very first computer for Christmas from some unknown benefactor. It comes with instructions and an example program, but the computer itself seems to be malfunctioning. She's curious what the program does, and would like you to help her run it.
The manual explains that the computer supports two registers and six instructions (truly, it goes on to remind the reader, a state-of-the-art technology). The registers are named a and b, can hold any non-negative integer, and begin with a value of 0. The instructions are as follows:
hlf r sets register r to half its current value, then continues with the next instruction.
All three jump instructions work with an offset relative to that instruction. The offset is always written with a prefix + or - to indicate the direction of the jump (forward or backward, respectively). For example, jmp +1 would simply continue with the next instruction, while jmp +0 would continuously jump back to itself forever.
The program exits when it tries to run an instruction beyond the ones defined.
--- Part Two ---
The unknown benefactor is very thankful for releasi-- er, helping little Jane Marie with her computer. Definitely not to distract you, what is the value in register b after the program is finished executing if register a starts as 1 instead?
It's Christmas Eve, and Santa is loading up the sleigh for this year's deliveries. However, there's one small problem: he can't get the sleigh to balance. If it isn't balanced, he can't defy physics, and nobody gets presents this year.
No pressure.
Santa has provided you a list of the weights of every package he needs to fit on the sleigh. The packages need to be split into three groups of exactly the same weight, and every package has to fit. The first group goes in the passenger compartment of the sleigh, and the second and third go in containers on either side. Only when all three groups weigh exactly the same amount will the sleigh be able to fly. Defying physics has rules, you know!
Of course, that's not the only problem. The first group - the one going in the passenger compartment - needs as few packages as possible so that Santa has some legroom left over. It doesn't matter how many packages are in either of the other two groups, so long as all of the groups weigh the same.
Furthermore, Santa tells you, if there are multiple ways to arrange the packages such that the fewest possible are in the first group, you need to choose the way where the first group has the smallest quantum entanglement to reduce the chance of any "complications". The quantum entanglement of a group of packages is the product of their weights, that is, the value you get when you multiply their weights together. Only consider quantum entanglement if the first group has the fewest possible number of packages in it and all groups weigh the same amount.
What is the quantum entanglement of the first group of packages in the ideal configuration?
--- Part Two ---
That's weird... the sleigh still isn't balancing.
"Ho ho ho", Santa muses to himself. "I forgot the trunk".
Balance the sleigh again, but this time, separate the packages into four groups instead of three. The other constraints still apply.
Now, what is the quantum entanglement of the first group of packages in the ideal configuration?