Each year, hundreds of thousands of people with brains like mine participate in a an online event called the Advent of Code. For the uninitiated, it’s a series of increasingly thorny coding puzzles that pay homage to an Advent Calendar by revealing a daily treat, in the form of a new challenge, from December 1st to December 25th. Each day’s challenge comes in two parts, with the second part only revealed after you solve the first, and typically twisting the puzzle in new and mind-bending ways.

The Advent of Code is the brainchild of Eric Wastl, a prolific open source contributor who’s now best known for his holiday creation. Eric designed the puzzles to be accessible to anyone with a little programming knowledge in almost any language (people have been known to use Excel!) Computer science degrees, powerful hardware and advanced programming skills are not required; just a healthy appetite for sticky problems and plenty of patience.

Much has been written about AoC. I wanted to add a rather personal observation. I’m confused — bewildered — by how over-excited these puzzles make me. At the start of December, I’m embarrassed to admit, I had a hard time falling asleep because I was so gripped with anticipation. I’d roll out of bed at 6am and leap to my computer with heart racing. On days that both parts weren’t solved by 7am, I’d become agitated as the work day loomed. To the intense irritation of my partner, I’d spend quality time over weekends finishing off anything unsolved.

I’m aware that not everyone responds to these puzzles like I do. Some people describe them as feeling like work, and are perplexed by reactions like mine. There’s some truth to that: it feels a bit like work to me too, but it’s the aspect of work I love the most, and it helps explain why I am so drawn to working in tech.

I’m often asked by friends from outside tech whether they should consider a career switch to software development or data science. Perhaps this is a litmus test; take a look at AoC and browse some of the challenges. If you think you’d get a kick out of cracking these puzzles, that’s a good sign. If the puzzles make you giddy with joy, then chances are, a tech career would make you very happy indeed.