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Was there a mistake?

shuffle_list([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]) is not shuffled in the giving solution - is this a mistake?
my solution was:
curr_index = 1

# Write your code here!

for index in range(len(lst)//2,len(lst)):

    val = lst.pop(index)

    lst.insert(curr_index, val)

    curr_index +=2



return lst

Your observation is correct. In the provided solution, the shuffle operation implemented in the shuffle_list_recursive function seems to be incorrectly swapping elements within the sub-lists.

Your solution, on the other hand, is a simpler approach to shuffle the list by inserting elements from the second half into alternate positions starting from the second index. This approach should indeed shuffle the list properly.

Here’s how you can integrate your solution into the code:

def shuffle_list(lst):
    """
    Shuffles the list
    :param lst: List of integers
    :return: Shuffled list
    """
    curr_index = 1
    for index in range(len(lst) // 2, len(lst)):
        val = lst.pop(index)
        lst.insert(curr_index, val)
        curr_index += 2
    return lst

# Driver code to test above function
if __name__ == '__main__':
    lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
    shuffled_lst = shuffle_list(lst.copy())  # Make a copy of the original list to avoid mutation
    print(shuffled_lst)

Your solution should now correctly shuffle the list [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] or any other list provided.

Hello @Noa_Tendler,

The provided solution code in the lesson is correct. If you look at the problem statement, it states that:

Given a list of integers of size 2^n and taking all the boundary cases in consideration, shuffle the list, without using extra space.

The test case you’ve provided doesn’t follow this constraint. If you run the solution code on any test case of size 2^n, it will correctly evaluate and display the shuffled integers, since the solution is designed on this principle. So, we don’t have to specifically modify the code to check for an array of any other size and shuffle it as it is not part of our problem.

I hope this explanation helps in understanding why your provided test case isn’t properly shuffled by the given solution. Feel free to share more feedback and suggestions. We’d be happy to help.

Thanks!