Tried to go through the course a few years ago. In my case it was the regex bit. Trying to write the code is a massive chore with with very little payoff for going through it, and needing to go through the instructions several times in a row. Gave up on the course there.

Some people gave up on that section (week 5 of 10) and went on with the rest of the course. That seems to work out OK.

(I felt a little bad about these reactions because I'd helped with that code. In its defense, I've also been told by a couple of people that they gained a lot by working through it.)

At one point I a friend was mentioning the regex golf https://xkcd.com/1313/ comic and how some insane person on the internet solved it. I mentioned my pains with the regex bit of the Design of Computer Programs course, and how Norvig had some Chtulhu like ability to write regexes that befuddle mortal minds. Lo and behold, it had been Norvig all along solving that. Python notebook available in the pytudes above.

Great course, learned a ton from it, but yeah lesson 3 where you had to build / follow him building a regex interpreter was definitely a beatdown for me. Everything else was pretty manageable, but still challenging.

He's not really trying to teach you poker or even how to write a poker program but rather how to solve problems by programming.

GP just means poker as an example it vehicle bores him. I agree - same with deck of card exercises.

Solve problems in particular domains - i.e. you have to understand the domain, learn rules - and it is very boring if the domain is not interesting for you.