How would you generate a pseudo-random number in a typical programming language?

• A. Use a hardware random number generator.
• B. Seed with the system time and use a standard library function.
• C. Use a function like rand().
• D. Ask the user for input to generate the number.

Answer: (C)

Pseudo-random numbers are produced by a deterministic algorithm inside the program, so the numbers only appear random. In most programming languages you generate them by calling a function from the standard library that runs a pseudo-random number generator. Each call returns a number, usually within a specific range, and you can scale it as needed for your use. The generator is seeded with an initial value—often the system time—to ensure different sequences on each run, though many environments seed automatically. This is the standard, portable way to obtain a pseudo-random number. While hardware random number generators can provide true randomness and asking the user for input isn’t reliable for randomness, the normal approach in code is to use a function like rand() from the standard library.