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Most solutions I see are just blobs of code, which makes me wonder what their process looks like.

I like to solve these kinds of problems in Lisp, which means I'm working in a REPL and dividing and conquering the problem to be able to test one piece of the solution at a time.

The result is that my code tends to be mainly independent functions that I finally string together to solve the problem.

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Some folks on the subreddit will stream and then post their solutions so you can see their process. I usually enjoy watching Jonathon Paulson solve a problem after I’ve got my solution submitted. He features quite high on the leaderboard each year.

https://youtu.be/rnidYOt9m2o?si=ND_FyUJTIe-dBNrT

I'm solving in BQN, and my workflow is repeatedly re-phrasing a line until it does what I want in the repl, and then naming it, and then moving on.

Most often I end up with some enormous one-liner that I then break down into functions again.

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