100% in your browser Β· No uploadsπŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί GDPR friendly⚑ Instant Β· No signup

Pair programming rotation generator

Mix up who pairs with whom. Drop your engineers' names, generate pairs in seconds, paste into the sprint kickoff.

0 participants

Want a prettier print-ready pack?

The free version does the job. The optional template pack just makes brackets look beautiful for events, classrooms and clubs.

See template pack

Free forever for basic use Β· No signup required

Use case

When to use this

Engineering teams that practise pair or mob programming and want to break the habit of always-the-same pairs. Use weekly or per-story.

How to use it

Step by step

  1. 1

    Paste team

    GitHub handles, names, anything readable.

  2. 2

    Generate pairs

    Or set 3-per-team for mobs.

  3. 3

    Drop into Slack

    Use the copy button.

Mob rotations

For 9+ engineers, switch to '3 per team' instead of pairs to create mob groups of three. Run again next week to rotate.

Why a generic generator works for this audience

There's a temptation to think a sport-specific or classroom-specific tool would be 'better' than a generic generator. In practice the opposite is true: the rules of fair team-splitting are the same whether you're dividing a Year 7 PE class or a Sunday-league football squad. What changes between audiences is the framing β€” the language used in the guide, the typical group size, the kinds of ratings people record. The underlying maths (Fisher–Yates shuffle, snake-draft balancing) is identical. That's why this site uses one generator across many audience-specific pages: the same engine, with copy and presets tuned to the context.

Save your roster between sessions

If you'll regenerate teams from the same roster repeatedly β€” every Tuesday training, every Friday game night β€” paste the names once, click 'Copy as text', and save the result in a note app or a pinned message. Next session, paste it back. There's no account system to maintain and nothing to forget; the names live wherever you keep your other notes. For coaches managing multiple squads, prefix each name with a one-letter squad tag (e.g. 'A Alex', 'B Sam') and use the filter step to keep only the relevant tag before generating.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can it avoid pairing the same junior with the same senior?

Re-roll β€” randomness handles this in practice.

Is it appropriate to use this with under-18s?

Yes. The generator doesn't ask for personal information, doesn't display ads inside the tool itself, and runs entirely client-side. Many teachers use it weekly. See the trust and safety page for the full position on under-16 use.

Can I export the roster to a spreadsheet?

Yes β€” the 'Export CSV' button gives you a two-column file (team, name) that opens cleanly in Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers. From there you can pivot, filter, or merge with attendance records.

What if someone arrives late?

Add their name to the textarea and regenerate. If you want to preserve the existing teams and just slot the latecomer in, use the 'Add to smallest team' shortcut instead of regenerating β€” it places them on whichever team currently has the fewest members.

Keep exploring

Related tools & guides

Ready to run your event?

Free forever for basic use. No signup required. The free version really does do the job.

Want prettier prints? See the optional template pack