from random import shuffle x = [1]*9 + [0]*7 shuffle(x) print(x[:len(x)//2], x[len(x)//2:]) # 1 _ 0 1, 1 _ _ 0 # 101, 10 # 110, _ #... # _ _ _ _, 1, _, _, _ # _, _, 1, _ # _, 1 # 1 # we could never solve the input: [0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1] [1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1] # so we have to pass a penguin up if one side is none, otherwise 0, _, 0, 1 - 0, 1, 1, 1 #lets pass penguin up in none case now, but still ignore if mismatch 0, _ - _, 1 0, 1 _ # we should be passing something up/doing something when the two mismatch # this heuristic fails when input: [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1] [0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1] # let's try again, this time we'll just pass up both of them lol 0, _, 0, 1 - 0, 1, 1, 1 0, 0, 1 - 0, 1, 1 # this fails, we no longer have a majority for our original majority species