#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my @array = ('a' .. 'z');
my @buckets = n_buckets(3, @array);

foreach my $aref (@buckets) {
    print scalar @$aref, ":@$aref\n";
}

# n_buckets(n, list)
sub n_buckets {
    my @buckets = ([]) x shift;
    my @list    = @_;
    my $mod     = @list % @buckets;
    my $inc     = int(@list / @buckets);
    map{ [splice @list, 0, $inc + (--$mod >= 0)] } 0 .. $#buckets;
}
__END__