AoC is one of my favorite events of the year. I find the puzzles to be much more approachable than things like Project Euler. I regularly credit my yearly participation for making me a better programmer.
I also do a daily writeup of my solution, which helps make sure I understand the problem and help others who are learning. I found it super rewarding last year, so I'm doing it again this year. They're in my GH repo. Here's today's: https://github.com/xavdid/advent-of-code/tree/main/solutions...
My big tip is that you probably don't need to worry about competing for the leaderboard (unless you really want to). Go at your own pace, don't stay up weird hours, and take a break.
I also do a daily writeup of my solution, which helps make sure I understand the problem and help others who are learning. I found it super rewarding last year, so I'm doing it again this year. They're in my GH repo. Here's today's: https://github.com/xavdid/advent-of-code/tree/main/solutions...
My big tip is that you probably don't need to worry about competing for the leaderboard (unless you really want to). Go at your own pace, don't stay up weird hours, and take a break.