Code Golf

Noun · Hacker Culture

Definitions

  1. A programming competition where participants solve a problem in the fewest possible characters of source code. The resulting code is magnificently unreadable and completely unmaintainable — which is the point.

    In plain English: A game where programmers try to solve problems using the shortest code possible — impressive but intentionally unreadable.

  2. Popular code golf languages like GolfScript, Jelly, and 05AB1E are deliberately designed to express operations in minimal characters — features that make them useless for production but perfect for competition. Code golf teaches creative thinking about language semantics.

    Example: 'The Python solution was 89 characters. Someone on Stack Exchange did it in 12 characters of Jelly. I don't even know how to read Jelly.'

    Source: competitive / esoteric languages

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