EasySeatingChart

Random seating chart generator

Paste your list, press auto-arrange, and everyone gets a new seat. The difference from a plain shuffle is that your keep-apart rules still hold, so randomness never lands you with the one pairing you were trying to avoid.

Capacity 24 · 0 on the list

One name per line — paste straight from a spreadsheet.

Pairs to keep apart

Even a random arrangement should not seat these people together. Add the pairs once and they apply to every reshuffle.

Unseated (0)

Everyone has a seat. Add names above to get started.

Group 1

0/4
  • Drop a name here

Group 2

0/4
  • Drop a name here

Group 3

0/4
  • Drop a name here

Group 4

0/4
  • Drop a name here

Group 5

0/4
  • Drop a name here

Group 6

0/4
  • Drop a name here

Why a plain random shuffle is not enough

Spreadsheet shuffles and name-picker wheels do produce a random arrangement, and about one time in five they produce the arrangement you specifically did not want. That is the nature of randomness: it has no idea that two of the names should never appear together. You end up rerunning the shuffle until it happens to give an acceptable result, which is neither random nor efficient.

Here the constraints are part of the process rather than something you check afterwards. Auto-arrange places the most constrained people first and only then fills the remaining seats, so every result it produces is already valid. Press it as many times as you like; the arrangement changes, the rules hold.

Good moments to reshuffle

In a classroom, the usual triggers are the start of a term, the beginning of a new unit, or the point where a group has stopped working. Regular reshuffles also make the seating plan feel like routine rather than a punishment aimed at one table, which tends to reduce the amount of negotiation you get about it.

At events, reshuffling is useful for workshops and training days where you want people to work with different colleagues in each session. Build the list once, then reshuffle between sessions and print each round.

Keeping some people fixed

Auto-arrange reassigns everybody, so if some placements must not move — a student who needs to be at the front, a speaker who needs an aisle seat — the practical approach is to run the shuffle first and then move those few people into position by hand. With a typical class or event list that is under a minute of work.

Where this fits with the other tools

If you are planning rather than shuffling, the classroom seating chart maker and the wedding seating chart maker use the same engine with wording and defaults suited to those situations. All three save separately in your browser, so a class plan and an event plan will not overwrite each other.

Frequently asked questions

How random is the arrangement?
Auto-arrange orders people by how constrained they are and then fills the first available valid seat, so it is best described as a valid reshuffle rather than a mathematically uniform random draw. In practice each run gives a different arrangement while guaranteeing no keep-apart rule is broken.
Can I reshuffle without losing my list?
Yes. Auto-arrange only changes who sits where. Your names, groups, seat counts and rules stay exactly as they are, so you can reshuffle as many times as you want.
Does the random generator respect keep-apart rules?
Yes, and that is the main reason to use it instead of a spreadsheet shuffle. A pair on the keep-apart list will never be placed in the same group, no matter how many times you reshuffle.
Why was someone left unseated after shuffling?
There was no group with a free seat that did not break one of your rules. Add a group, increase the seats per group, or review whether every rule you added is genuinely required.
Can I use it for team or workshop breakouts?
Yes. Set the number of groups to the number of breakout teams you need and the seats to the team size, then reshuffle between sessions so people work with different colleagues each round.