Happy New Year - Coding Challenges 2026
A look forward to Coding Challenges in 2026
Firstly, Happy New Year!
As we start 2026 I’m wondering which direction to take this newsletter in, so I’d love to get your feedback (you can hit reply or comment on Substack). I will read every response. In particular I’d love to know:
What would you like to see in future newsletters?
What coding challenge do you really wish I’d provide?
How can I make this newsletter more valuable to you?
What would make it worth becoming paid subscriber?
At the moment, I plan to:
Continue publishing the occasional coding challenge with several focused on AI technology and techniques planned. Plus an interpreter, compiler, Kafka and a relational database.
Continue to publish the From The Challenges articles.
Start publishing some specific tutorials focusing on how to tackle elements of the Coding Challenges and other interesting techniques.
However, I’d really like your feedback, what will make it valuable for you?
In the meantime, here’s some details on the first live workshop of 2026.
Live Workshop On AI-Assisted Software Engineering
I’m running a live workshop on AI-assisted software engineering. It’s happening on Friday 9th January at 17:00 GMT. It will be run on Zoom and is free for all paid subscribers.
The workshop will address the following questions, giving you my answers:
Are LLMs AI?
What is an LLM?
What is an AI coding assistant?
Why do we care what an AI coding assistant is?
How can we use that knowledge to get the most from them?
There must be more to it than that! How can we leverage AI to build better software?
Which will help you make better use of AI when developing software.
I’ll also be demonstrating how to build a very simple AI coding agent during the workshop.
You can sign up for the workshop using the link on the paid subscribers benefits page. There is a New Year discount of 25% off until 9th January 2026.
Future workshops will be run monthly for paid subscribers, who will be able to request and vote on future topics.
Request for Feedback
I’m writing these coding challenges and this new from the challenges series to help you develop your skills as a software engineer based on how I’ve approached my own personal learning and development.
What works for me, might not be the best way for you - so if you have suggestions for how I can make the newsletter more useful to you and others, please get in touch and let me know. All feedback greatly appreciated.
You can reach me on Bluesky, LinkedIn or through SubStack
Thanks and happy coding!
John
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