Challenge: Open Space Classifier

A small utility that reads a CSV of people and randomly assigns them to seats at tables. It can be run daily with a path to your CSV and will output a summary of how many people were seated and who couldn't be seated if capacity is exceeded.

Features

• Reads names from a CSV column named "Names"
• If your CSV is a single column without a header, it will automatically create a clean_ file with a header and re-read it
• Randomly distributes people across tables and seats
• Default room capacity: 6 tables × 4 seats = 24 seats

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+ (uv will install a version of python that is local to the project)
• Install uv on your system.

Quick start

• Using example data in this repository:

uv run app data\new_colleagues.csv

You should see a summary and the room layout printed to the console.

Example output

Total names: 26 | Seated: 24 | Unseated: 2
Unseated people (not enough capacity):
- Casey
- Drew

Room layout:
Table 1: [Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dana]
Table 2: [Eli, Fran, Gus, Harper]
Table 3: [Ira, Jules, Kai, Lee]
Table 4: [Mona, Noel, Oak, Pax]
Table 5: [Quinn, Rei, Sky, Tay]
Table 6: [Uma, Val, Wes, Xan]

OpenSpace state saved to data/openspace.json

or

Total names: 21 | Seated: 20 | Unseated: 1
Unseated person (could only seat this person alone on a table):
- Anna

Room layout:
Table 1: [Héloïse, Michiel, Kristin, Hamideh]
Table 2: [Frédéric, Viktor, Esra, Welederufeal]
Table 3: [Pierrick, Živile, Sandrine, Imran]
Table 4: [Amine, Intan K., Faranges, Nancy]
Table 5: [Aleksei, Jens, Tim, Astha]
Table 6: [-, -, -, -]

OpenSpace state saved to data/openspace.json

OpenSpace state saved to data/openspace.json

Note: The exact names per table will vary because the people are shuffled randomly each run.

JSON Output

In addition to the console output, the application saves a detailed layout of the openspace in a JSON file named openspace.json. This file is located in the same directory as the input CSV file.

This file includes details about the tables, seats, and occupants.

CSV format

• Preferred: a header row with a column named Names
• Also supported: a single-column CSV without a header (the program will create clean csv file with a Names header and use that)

Running the app

You can pass the CSV path as an argument or run interactively.

• With an argument:

uv run app path\to\your\people.csv

• Interactively (you will be prompted for the path):

uv run app

Example data file in this repo: data\new_colleagues.csv (single-column list without header)

Output

The program prints a summary like:

• Total names: N | Seated: S | Unseated: U
• If any people could not be seated, their names are listed under "Unseated people"

Notes on capacity

• Defaults to 6 tables with 4 seats each (24 total)
• People are shuffled and seated table-by-table until no seats remain
• Any extra names are returned and printed as "Unseated"

Development

Formatting the code

uv tool run black .

Test and Test Coverage

Run tests with verbose mode (-v) and test coverage:

uv run pytest -v

Run test coverage and report with line numbers:

uv run pytest --cov-report=term-missing

Troubleshooting

• File not found: Make sure you provide a valid path and use backslashes on Windows, e.g., C:\path\to\people.csv
• Missing header: If your CSV is a single column without a header, the app will create a companion file named clean_ with a Names header and use that automatically.
• Empty or blank lines: Blank or whitespace-only lines are ignored.
• Capacity: By default there are 6 tables with 4 seats each (24 total). Extra people will be listed as Unseated.