>It's probably an unpopular stance, but I've never done Advent of Code for the competitive aspect
Is this an unpopular stance? Out of a dozen people I know that did/do AoC every year, only one was trying to compete. Everyone else did it for fun, to learn new languages or concepts, to practice coding, etc.
Maybe it helps that, because of timezones, in Europe you need to be really dedicated to play for a win.
No, it's not. At most 200 people could end up on the global leaderboard, and there are tens of thousands of people who participate most days (though it drops off by the end, it's over 100k reliably for the first day). The vast majority of participants are not there for the leaderboard. If you care about being competing, there are always private leaderboards.
Is this an unpopular stance? Out of a dozen people I know that did/do AoC every year, only one was trying to compete. Everyone else did it for fun, to learn new languages or concepts, to practice coding, etc.
Maybe it helps that, because of timezones, in Europe you need to be really dedicated to play for a win.