I use usize by default, but last year there was a challenge that significantly improved performance when I switched from usize to u8 (don’t recall which one though).
I normally use the “most appropriate” size, but this year I’m just using usize everywhere and it’s a lot more fun. So far I haven’t found any problem where it ran too slow and the problem was in my implementation and not my algorithm choice.
I usually use Longs by default too, but this year I mostly got by with Ints, so I’ve stuck to Ints for less memory (my solutions tend to be rather inefficient in that regard .-.)
![[2025 Day 7] As long as the result is positive, it can't have overflown, right?](https://discuss.tchncs.de/pictrs/image/6da5499a-93d8-41a0-bc09-0aa40074b20d.jpeg){kind=link}
I use usize by default, but last year there was a challenge that significantly improved performance when I switched from usize to u8 (don’t recall which one though).
I normally use the “most appropriate” size, but this year I’m just using usize everywhere and it’s a lot more fun. So far I haven’t found any problem where it ran too slow and the problem was in my implementation and not my algorithm choice.
I usually use Longs by default too, but this year I mostly got by with Ints, so I’ve stuck to Ints for less memory (my solutions tend to be rather inefficient in that regard .-.)