Coding Agents Are Good at Algorithms

I’ve been working on a solver for a word game called Strands. Wanting to try out the latest coding agents, I let Claude take a shot at writing an algorithm. I expected a little vibe-coding would get me most of the way there, but the computational complexity proved to be a lot more challenging than I thought. Along the way though, I learned to collaborate with my coding agent in a way that wasn’t just a time save, it truly extended my abilities.