Random pair generator

Names 9 names

Press Draw to see the result

Seed (optional) Type anything here and the same seed always gives the same result — useful when somebody wants the draw checked.

Local · odd numbers make a three, never a one

Paste a list and it is shuffled into pairs. If the count is odd, the last group has three people rather than leaving one person without a partner — which is what you want in a classroom and what most tools get wrong.

How to pair people randomly

1 Paste the names, one per line.

2 Draw. Pairs appear in draw order.

3 Copy the result, or use a seed to make the same pairing repeatable.

Pairing is where random assignment earns its keep: pair programming, language practice, peer review and interview rotations all work better when people are not choosing their usual partner. If you run the same list weekly you will get repeats — that is genuine randomness, not a bug. Rotating deliberately needs a round-robin schedule rather than a shuffle, and that is a different tool.

Questions

What happens with an odd number of people? −

The last group has three. Nobody is left unpaired.

Can I stop the same pair coming up again? +

Is the pairing fair? +

Can I reproduce a pairing? +

Is anything stored? +

Sources

MDN — Crypto.getRandomValues()

Was this tool any good?

INTERNAL SIGNAL ONLY · WE USE IT TO FIND TOOLS WORTH REBUILDING