Programming Puzzles & Code Golf newsletter

Top new questions this week:

Write program in your favorite language in another language

The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language. from Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal Your task is to write program in your programming language of choice, but you …

popularity-contest

asked by el.pescado 72 votes answered by Alex M. 48 votes

Create a memory leak, without any fork bombs

Your task is to create a memory leak. This is a program that uses loads of memory, until the computer runs out and has to do some swapping to save itself from running out. The only way that the memory …

popularity-contest

asked by George H 40 votes answered by James_pic 52 votes

Hidden stereogram message

You must generate an text stereogram according to an input string containing a paragraph of text, an empty line then the hidden message. The result will be displayed as a pair of paragraphs, one with …

code-golf

asked by kitcar2000 22 votes answered by Bruno Le Floch 7 votes

Optimizing the telephone keypad

There seems to be this ongoing craze about people tediously learning new keyboard layouts like Dvorak or Neo because it supposedly makes them more productive. I argue that switching keyboard layouts …

code-golf

asked by Flonk 19 votes answered by OJW 2 votes

The Note of Destiny - place a note on a staff

The zombie apocalypse has come, and the world is coming to an end. Suddenly, someone discovers a formula that takes the current hour, minute, and day, and spits out the perfect note to play on a piano …

code-golf ascii-art music

asked by Doorknob 17 votes answered by Claudiu 1 vote

What ROT is this? - decrypt ROT-n

Here are the letters of the English alphabet in order by frequency: e t a o i n s h r d l c u m w f g y p b v k j x q z That is, e is the most frequently used letter, and z is the least common. …

code-golf cryptography

asked by Doorknob 16 votes answered by Doorknob 5 votes

Find the optimal starting move of Chomp

Chomp is a two-player game with a setup of a rectangle of pieces. Each player takes a turn removing any piece, along with all pieces above it and to its right. Whoever takes the bottom-left piece …

code-golf

asked by Ypnypn 14 votes answered by Howard 6 votes

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

Emulate an Intel 8086 CPU

Note: A couple of answers have arrived. Consider upvoting newer answers too. C from user1662116 C++ from Darius Goad Postscript from luser droog C++ from JoeFish Javascript from entirelysubjective …

code-challenge

asked by copy 76 votes answered by j-a 49 votes

Tips for golfing in Python

What general tips do you have for golfing in Python? I'm looking for ideas that can be applied to code golf problems in general that are at least somewhat specific to Python (e.g. "remove comments" is …

code-golf python tips

asked by marcog 46 votes answered by marcog 40 votes