Here are some examples of the challenges:
Japanese Pattern
Uwe Geiken asked us to recreate an intricate Japanese pattern. By mirroring, rotating and repeating a 4 line candy cane shape I squeezed this into 156 bytes.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgweH1tJ5Phnf8XmWHhmdBdX3HLzikDn3IBdFqM3SxmVltNtt4_uztjNurbpxTYfZds1RDVNr6IeMKeb8uBgBKh8rNk7MTtn93GA6ltzgsf1h2-NPO_EcJibh3GkGYpdX036TaIQMesUd4/s1600/japx156.png)
Earth/Venus Orbits
David Saphier challenged us to write the fastest code to display the Earth and Venus orbit pattern in BASIC. Being a bit of a rebel I aimed to write the shortest code and managed to completely botch it before coming up with this working version:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn9trj-lglRFFnNVlOEjwkKy2XxrHo_bjt3r68G2RC8gpkSXJsa0HXbg3y4IghHVd_ru9ley4ZERRo39uKfp28Hxv9GQUPnEIXXXSsqWCdYDtHwLwOZnjMS96TmppFz2yboBHbujWP9vw/s1600/ve81.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJczUUFX1i3DCWaeVBtk-xZvfexwYILPeH0r6DtUo0pZdjEOiRxAhPYZUgFfeado38KxmhFXcjt4MqJwoPG6pJotZwJFpdPd4rm7bQa_UWRMD7Tv7pDbBoXmfV17DxZsogfvn6K2392TM/s1600/vecode.png)
Greenlandic Flag
Matthew Logue issued a challenge to accurately display the flag of Greenland. The flag is simple enough to be reduced to a formulax²+y² < 54² ⊻ y > 0
:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpldSmUi5fr2ewbW9LqArtio6k4aqXWhnRGVSqz85ai-vOOoyYlf2xcATfBDgLXq11SSTpmfZuTVTOcTzXolp2qs1fpylIDr8v3BYEpAUwinEcL1qHvvY14YtJMVHr4Wfr8n4gFn8uO8/s1600/greenland65pic.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1F6FODmBsrACHmkcBigdGH0fIJpomkx_GCdS1ZVsLgR5MBanvLKHas3stawyEZC99Co7a04f8HilvwxQMk3LN_LcDEzyITChh4pVwG9PAXIJzZzjdEaSkhoxVaEXveZ_QCzFDSB7WWPg/s1600/greenland65code.png)
Triangles
Uke Geiken showed a pattern of triangles and asked for the shortest code. The shortest implementation I found uses UDGs:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMOwmMmPPpTbRunawMLZDwQ3njHp5cXTauA9vfj5If0jeChg4Sl_tYFYVugkysSILtcRN-fCttdPPGQUM-i_hH_PaMxn6Af9ZPLpeiNxJe0bwJOKVJz4BbmHVWtMZemOGr9_pBnmodgM8/s1600/triangle151.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc0zDdr_9JhWXhHEGGKLyRbZfw704hG_gIjSa7CwqPfUdPBhp_A0NZPeJtuTSZ4ttWuiwQ4FsRntuiM7egGaXMM0wrfCDcYsY0ufGERw7aCTnQkvOGyzDh9npL8bd7nmjhLowqqIPNAIU/s1600/triangle151code.png)
Grid
Matthew Logue asked us recreate a grid-like pattern with the shortest code. Surprisingly I actually managed to discover the smallest program:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGY3MqMK6pGOZZWIW4-6GITc7LOa6y3yScSp3EtqJs_YaYfH6ZVVGl4iEljz2l2AwLtRlmWE8iL87JnWmEMU6unAm3tdCNkunpdSZ2A_RsrdG4VCpCD4_Xpp-KYc3S8QdVQjkYxv_va8g/s1600/grid65.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjut-r2puL_U4Gvc6xExE3pc4Il1rEiFD4EAvZwK4wjZWAsfHq8CUvm7Q6iyjtumWUY0ShUblw1Rh-WmsVRAXOwrsQuMuRQyxGAZFmmz0IFQj66H4doZCY3LuT8czSNiPMrTwSN9FLrKgY/s1600/grid65code.png)
Weaving
Uwe Geiken challenged us to recreate a pattern of weaving attributes. I found this one pretty tricky to reduce in size, but finally got it down to 109 bytes:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzawdP58d-kqQhgAyYd6k_zqZ9gu8J42aDQk5Bz91vgB41NrH6mUm7FzhnyQab6n_rulQeS85YZ3zxfhDP4uzBroC874zlhicHhpJn4R3YJ1yVMssE008z_lvw96mJjw-rQin6X-qzCf0/s1600/weave109.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPV5A2tne9SPWmuIYY_olprTSNVP8jMhO5-JI3rEAzO4u8jQ6efweOxbxKW6NCXyhJmjvD4fL7hYArHVId7LZQgF2jG8-4r-BSkQe43YSVgg9bnAKfgf5fLRqJq18qLaHQsNTAOEqtDzE/s1600/weave109prog.png)
Flag
Matthew Logue asked for the shortest code to recreate a 31×21 attribute flag-like pattern. Uwe Geiken solved this is 67 bytes, easily beating my 74:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1rq1P_UwvrkbQKL2RHwMOFgg2zqra7vRrjAcXJxUTttIFg0h0PKvGO79AVj1Cpir4XPg32t3o8I3lxphAlk3ACaL6kY_XTKuPJdeeAokxkfNXevJrPqz0o-Ff_t0D-5JEmFjAOFERQ0/s1600/flag74.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL32LjUJXBiuqOsUxxWmYB-rpUODyaQxq0mC-AXGr1oe0k3vCIkxS_GI7PIushu4DH-7_upgnH0kAmPMIprbUCWE1BHDaEM7SWhZlpEWMP-CFoRdAWXWgeHMdYcYur85eldlIOkkk_Qjo/s1600/flag74prog.png)
Rudimentary Gear
Matthew Logue challenged us again, this time to draw a rudimentary gear with 10 teeth and a circular radius. Here's what I came up with:![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUwmibEeX1ORuX6WauK6uKJJmuE8T3U1Xk_HpDAqWtNUPjxCwfbc8KUhoGGIytHyCYcGzhDDX9KlfgDzW2hMvD8IWkmij-nKzsckGyMR_zahfo5koLfr0mfhfZ-ApP0kOILuTcxAFhWEE/s1600/cog98.png)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26utqmAnQtxgqdKn_-Svk2ScCSf8Wj68JBt-H7OTr40SCI_XwlrB-LK5gQn8QripFEITPVEU44Ttuq45VZyn3NPvZGg_Lv0dUpNntb-8HGIp9eRHEUJs9jogtdU6-tpR6vsID7HcMSpk/s1600/cog98code.png)