I need to randomly light some LEDs, what hardware do I need?

Hi! Thanks for looking. I am working on a project for a miniature. I have very little experience in this area. I have looked at some other threads and it mostly seems way over my head.

I want 3 LEDs to come on and stay on when I press one button, and 3 to come on and stay on when I press another button. The rub is I want the number (between 1 and 3) of LEDs that light up to be random every time I press the button.

I bought an uno, LEDs and some resistors and such. What other hardware do I need? Any help with the programming or directions to helpful resources would also be very helpful. Thanks a ton!

Your description is not quite clear. On the one hand "I want 3 LEDs to come on and stay on when I press one button" and on the other hand "The rub is I want the number (between 1 and 3) of LEDs that light up to be random".

Please elaborate / rephrase.

From a programming perspective, the Arduino will' remember' the LEDs that are on. So on button press, switch LEDs on and remember which button was pressed so a second button press on the same button will not result in different LEDs being switched on.

Use INPUT_PULLUP for the pinMode of the button pins; this will prevent floating inputs and hence false readings of the button state; wire the buttons between pin and ground. When a button is pressed, the signal will be LOW, else HIGH.

Random number can be achieved using the random function.

Hey, sorry I see where I was unclear.

When I press a button, I want 1,2 or 3 LEDs to light up (randomly) out of 3 possible LEDs. When I press the button again, I want the either 1,2 or 3 of the same potential LEDs to light again.

Is this something feasible by someone as inexperienced as myself?

Thanks for your help!

hiic:
Is this something feasible by someone as inexperienced as myself?

Absolutely. Start by trying to just light up an led, forget the random part. Once you get that working, then we can work on the random part.

Pick a random number between 1 and 3; this will give you the number of LEDs to light.
For this number (e.g. 2), pick new random numbers between 1 and 3; those are the LEDs that you want to switch on.
Switch the LEDs on (e.g. 1 and 3).