Advent of Code Surveys: Results

Chart showing (top) used languages

Bar chart showing that the top 2 remains Python 3 (>41%) followed by Rust (>17%). JavaScript dropped several spots from 2023, after (in order) C++, C#, Go, and even Java. TypeScript is just behind JavaScript. A whopping 24.5% of "Other..." answers. Python 2 is shown in the graph at a tiny percentage, only because the earliest survey years gave it a much larger percentage. Toggle data table for all the data.

Chart showing the (top) used IDEs

Bar chart showing IDE's used. VSCode down another couple % to 42.4%. Neovim has stabilized in second place, and Vim equally stabilized. When enabling older years, especially 2018, a stark change is seen, amongst which the demise of "Atom". And, 18.4% of "Other..." IDE's were used. Toggle data table for all the data.

Chart showing used (primary) operating systems

Bar chart showing an ongoing decline in Windows usage since 2022, but an almost equal uptake in WSL usage in those years. On the whole, Windows, Linux, and macOS have roughly equal shares. Oh, and the data table has plenty of cool "Other..." answers too! Toggle data table for all the data.

⚠ Note: In 2023 'WSL' (along with 'Android', 'iOS', and 'IPadOs') became built-in options, heavily increasing their representation.

Chart showing the reason for participating

Bar chart showing "Reasons for participating": unchanged again in 2025, it's extremely curious and interesting that the top responses are this stable over the years! The value is not in the chart here, really: but in the data table. Toggle data table for all the data. And gasp at the heartwarming, disconcerting, pleasing, fun, and lovely responses folks wrote!

Note: "For Santa!" was not a default answer in the survey until 2020 onwards.

Chart showing participation in global leaderboard

Bar chart that only shows data from 2024 and before, as the Global Leaderboard got removed in 2025. It shows slight trends, with increasing "Not interested" stats over the years. Toggle data table for all the data.

Chart showing number of private leaderboards one is involved in

Private leaderboard usage stays relatively stable over the years, even in 2025 when the Global Leaderboard was removed. Most people are on 0 or 1 private leaderboards, around 15% are on 2 leaderboards, and things drop off from there. Toggle data table for all the data.

Chart showing when respondents completed each of the AoC years

This stacked bar chart clearly shows that (logically) this survey is biased towards people who participate in 2025 in December itself. This year each question had a link to your stars for that year, so data might be a little more accurate. It's fun to see that more folks went back to do 2015 than 2016 and 2017: "you've gotta start at the beginning"?

Line chart showing cumulative number of responses to the survey

Line chart with 2025 highlighted, showing the number of survey responses per day (cumulative). We had only 12 days of puzzling and the survey closed around the 12th of December as well, explaining the line from staying flat from there on out.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart displaying how intensely folks felt this emotion while doing AoC.

not at allextremely

Note: some respondents may have skipped this question and are not included in the data or average.

Bar chart and table with opinions around AI and LLM's

Bar chart showing feelings survey respondents felt aligned with. About 62% of y'all indicate not using AI at all. The tongue-in-cheek option "Ugh, not again with the AI" attracted a whopping 41% of y'all. Almost 10% of you "Will submit to our new AI Overlords". On the more serious end the subject is polarizing, but still weighing a tad towards "it's bad for AoC". Toggle the data table to be amazed at the hundreds of custom responses folks gave!

Note: red indicates negative sentiments, yellow neutral sentiment, and green positive sentiment. The blues are "Other..." style answers.

Bar chart and table with opinions around AI and LLM's

Bar chart showing sentiments towards AI, quite similar to results from 2023. (Because of personal circumstances and time constraints, the 2024-specific question ended up being the same as 2023.)

⚠️ Just like the Advent of Code organizers, I was unprepared for how (much) AI would be involved this year, or how vocal some folks would get in their discourse and the "Other..." answers. Moderating the "Other..." answers a bit to keep things civil will require quite a bit of time, so the initial 2024-results will release without detailed "Other..." options. Hope y'all understand!

Note: red indicates negative sentiments, yellow neutral sentiment, and green positive sentiment. The blues are "Other..." style answers.