Cards Shuffle Program | Dataford Interview Questions

A.O. Smith field-service software uses card-like lists to present diagnostic actions in a randomized order. Implement a function that returns a uniformly shuffled copy of the provided cards using the Fisher-Yates algorithm.

The shuffle must be deterministic for the same seed, must not modify the input list, and must preserve every card exactly once. Cards may be any JSON-compatible values, including strings or numbers.

Formal Specification

Implement shuffle_cards(cards, seed), where cards is a list and seed is an integer. Return a new list containing the same elements in shuffled order. Initialize a local pseudorandom generator with seed; do not use or modify global random state.

Constraints

0 <= len(cards) <= 10^5
seed is an integer
Card values are distinct in the intended use case
The input list must not be modified
The output must preserve the input multiset

Function Signature

def shuffle_cards(cards, seed):

Your question is Cards Shuffle Program. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

Formal Specification

Constraints

0 <= len(cards) <= 10^5
seed is an integer
Card values are distinct in the intended use case
The input list must not be modified
The output must preserve the input multiset

Function Signature

def shuffle_cards(cards, seed):

Your question is Cards Shuffle Program. Start with the requirements in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.