Uniform Deck Shuffle | Dataford Interview Questions

Applied Systems workflow tools may need to randomize a standard deck of 52 cards for simulations or randomized testing. Implement a function that shuffles a list in place so every permutation is equally likely.

Use the Fisher-Yates algorithm. The function receives a list of distinct card identifiers and an integer seed for reproducible evaluation. It must return the same list object after shuffling.

Formal Specification

Input: deck, a list of distinct values representing cards, and seed, an integer used to initialize a local pseudorandom generator.
Output: The shuffled deck list, containing exactly the original values in a randomized order.
The algorithm must not add, remove, or duplicate cards.
Use one random index for each position and perform swaps in place.

Constraints

0 <= len(deck) <= 52
All card identifiers are distinct
seed is an integer
The result must contain exactly the original cards
The shuffle must modify the input list in place

Function Signature

def shuffle_deck(deck, seed):

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