Programming Puzzles & Code Golf newsletter

Top new questions this week:

I need a program where the user inputs an array of doubles and the program outputs the array sorted

Note: This question was severely edited since I first posted it here. The rules were moved to here, read them before posting any answer to understand the purpose of this. This was the first question …

code-challenge popularity-contest code-trolling

asked by Victor 240 votes answered by Victor 145 votes

9 Hole Challenge

edit: Due to the awesome response and the unhappiness from the folks who closed this question, it's going to take me a while to modify and mark the rest of the submissions. See you soon! The 9 Hole …

code-golf math algorithm ascii-art

asked by Dan Prince 44 votes answered by AsksAnyway 8 votes

Produce the number 2014 without any numbers in your source code

So, now that it's 2014, it's time for a code question involving the number 2014. Your task is to make a program that prints the number 2014 without using any of the characters 0123456789 in your …

code-golf

asked by Joe Z. 38 votes answered by Quincunx 30 votes

How do I write an adding function?

The problem: I am the lead developer for a big company, we are making Skynet. I have been assigned to Write a function that inputs and returns their sum RULES: No answers like …

popularity-contest code-trolling

asked by scrblnrd3 34 votes answered by ProgramFOX 49 votes

Shortest code to print a smiley face

Requirements For the sake of the challenge let's define a unit: A unit is defined as any point that compose the grid in which the face is drawn (pixels for screen, characters for ASCII art, …

ascii-art popularity-contest

asked by Jefffrey 31 votes answered by avall 56 votes

How do I find the longest palindrome in a string?

The challenge: Make a function that finds the longest palindrome inside a string. Note: This is a code-trolling question. Please do not take the question and/or answers seriously. More …

code-trolling

asked by Joe Z. 30 votes answered by tomwilde 17 votes

Write a function that tells you which of its lines has been removed

Write a function that contains five lines. If you run the function as-is, it should return 0. If you remove any one of the five lines and run the function, it should tell you which of the lines has …

popularity-contest function

asked by jawns317 20 votes answered by histocrat 16 votes

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

Shortest code that return SIGSEGV

Shortest code that returns Segmentation Fault (SIGSEGV) in any programming language.

code-golf

asked by Arya 7 votes answered by GlitchMr 20 votes

Solve Rubik's cube

Write the shortest program that solves Rubik's cube (3*3*3) within a reasonable amount of time and moves (say, max. 5 seconds on your machine and less than 1000 moves). The input is in the format: …

code-golf algorithm

asked by aditsu 17 votes answered by aditsu 13 votes

Can you answer these?

Implement the Universal Machine emulator

The goal is to write a full program that emulates the Universal Machine from ICFP 2006 with the shortest code. The Universal Machine has a very simple instruction set explained here. The emulator has …

code-golf interpreter

asked by mniip 1 vote

Sunrise and sunset

I'm a bit of a romantic, I love taking my wife out to see the sunrises and sunsets in the place we are located. For the sake of this exercise let's say I don't have code that can tell me the time of …

code-golf math

asked by Eliseo d'Annunzio 7 votes

Hide evil code - print files containing a given string anywhere in a directory tree

Note: This is a code-trolling question. Please do not take the question and/or answers seriously. More information here. The point of this puzzle is to learn how a malicious code can be hidden and …

popularity-contest code-trolling

asked by Petr Pudlák 1 vote