Code submission for Kleiner Perkins Engineering Fellows Program 2020.
npm install
npm start
When the game starts, the program asks for the number of players playing. Then, the game proceeds by showing the initial deal (with the dealer's first card hidden), and sequentually asking each player whether they would like to hit or stand. After all the players have gone, the dealer then reveals their hand and proceeds to hit until they bust or their hand value is above 16. Then, the final showdown occurs, summarizing the players' wins, losses, and draws. The program then asks whether another round should be played.
A number of more complicated rules and game mechanisms have been ignored for the purposes of this code submission. This list includes, but is not limited to (1) betting, (2) splitting pairs, (3) doubling down, (4) insurance, (5) standard casino shuffling, and (6) round-end on all player bust/Blackjack. For a complete list of Blackjack rules, visit the Bicycle Blackjack rules site.
The primary mechanism for maintaining the deck and player hands is an array. Ultimately, because a deck contains 52 cards, the size of the deck and any player hand is capped at a constant value. Therefore, all the necessary search, update, and manipulation operations will be O(1).
Shuffling the deck used something called the Fisher-Yates (aka Knuth) Shuffle, and was discovered through this StackOverflow post.
I ultimately chose Javascript for its speed of development. Given the size of this project, it provided enough power without as much overhead as something like, say, C++.
All external libraries used can be found in package.json. Here are some reasons why I used them:
mocha: Simple testing framework with good online supportinquirer: Simplifies the process of asking the user for inputchalk: Console outputs looks much more colorfulfiglet: Provides interesting textual console outputclear: Simplifies clearing the terminal screen in a safe, cross-platform way
$ npm start
> blackjack@1.0.0 start /blackjack
> NODE_PATH=src/ node src/index.js
? How many players (not including the dealer)? Minimum 1. Maximum: 6.
3
=====================
DEALER (XX): XX 9♥
=====================
Player 1 (20): 10♦ Q♦
Player 2 (12): J♠ 2♥
Player 3 (13): 3♣ Q♣
=====================
Player 1 (20): 10♦ Q♦
? Player 1, what do you want to do? Stand
Player 1 (20): 10♦ Q♦
Player 2 (12): J♠ 2♥
? Player 2, what do you want to do? Hit
Player 2 (17): J♠ 2♥ 5♣
? Player 2, what do you want to do? Stand
Player 2 (17): J♠ 2♥ 5♣
Player 3 (13): 3♣ Q♣
? Player 3, what do you want to do? Hit
Player 3 (23): 3♣ Q♣ Q♠
Player 3 busted!
DEALER (15): 10♣ 5♥
DEALER hits!
DEALER (19): 10♣ 5♥ 4♥
DEALER stands!
Player 1 WON by beating DEALER.
Player 2 LOST by being weaker than DEALER.
Player 3 LOST by busting.
npm test