diff --git a/src/gc-stock.h b/src/gc-stock.h
index 7176ad8b504f4..45c93bf4289ae 100644
--- a/src/gc-stock.h
+++ b/src/gc-stock.h
@@ -446,7 +446,7 @@ STATIC_INLINE int gc_is_concurrent_collector_thread(int tid) JL_NOTSAFEPOINT
 STATIC_INLINE int gc_random_parallel_collector_thread_id(jl_ptls_t ptls) JL_NOTSAFEPOINT
 {
     assert(jl_n_markthreads > 0);
-    int v = gc_first_tid + (int)cong(jl_n_markthreads - 1, &ptls->rngseed);
+    int v = gc_first_tid + (int)cong(jl_n_markthreads, &ptls->rngseed); // cong is [0, n)
     assert(v >= gc_first_tid && v <= gc_last_parallel_collector_thread_id());
     return v;
 }
diff --git a/src/julia_internal.h b/src/julia_internal.h
index 23a9c90edf8aa..dad28791f8c35 100644
--- a/src/julia_internal.h
+++ b/src/julia_internal.h
@@ -1307,20 +1307,36 @@ JL_DLLEXPORT size_t jl_maxrss(void);
 // congruential random number generator
 // for a small amount of thread-local randomness
 
-STATIC_INLINE uint64_t cong(uint64_t max, uint64_t *seed) JL_NOTSAFEPOINT
+//TODO: utilize https://github.com/openssl/openssl/blob/master/crypto/rand/rand_uniform.c#L13-L99
+// for better performance, it does however require making users expect a 32bit random number.
+
+STATIC_INLINE uint64_t cong(uint64_t max, uint64_t *seed) JL_NOTSAFEPOINT // Open interval [0, max)
 {
-    if (max == 0)
+    if (max < 2)
         return 0;
     uint64_t mask = ~(uint64_t)0;
-    --max;
-    mask >>= __builtin_clzll(max|1);
-    uint64_t x;
+    int zeros = __builtin_clzll(max);
+    int bits = CHAR_BIT * sizeof(uint64_t) - zeros;
+    mask = mask >> zeros;
     do {
-        *seed = 69069 * (*seed) + 362437;
-        x = *seed & mask;
-    } while (x > max);
-    return x;
+        uint64_t value = 69069 * (*seed) + 362437;
+        *seed = value;
+        uint64_t x = value & mask;
+        if (x < max) {
+            return x;
+        }
+        int bits_left = zeros;
+        while (bits_left >= bits) {
+            value >>= bits;
+            x = value & mask;
+            if (x < max) {
+                return x;
+            }
+            bits_left -= bits;
+        }
+    } while (1);
 }
+
 JL_DLLEXPORT uint64_t jl_rand(void) JL_NOTSAFEPOINT;
 JL_DLLEXPORT void jl_srand(uint64_t) JL_NOTSAFEPOINT;
 JL_DLLEXPORT void jl_init_rand(void);
diff --git a/src/scheduler.c b/src/scheduler.c
index 3cf97ba108873..71943a25f3233 100644
--- a/src/scheduler.c
+++ b/src/scheduler.c
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ extern int jl_gc_mark_queue_obj_explicit(jl_gc_mark_cache_t *gc_cache,
 // parallel task runtime
 // ---
 
-JL_DLLEXPORT uint32_t jl_rand_ptls(uint32_t max)
+JL_DLLEXPORT uint32_t jl_rand_ptls(uint32_t max) // [0, n)
 {
     jl_ptls_t ptls = jl_current_task->ptls;
     return cong(max, &ptls->rngseed);
diff --git a/src/signal-handling.c b/src/signal-handling.c
index 6835f5fa364c5..d7f4697a3c4f0 100644
--- a/src/signal-handling.c
+++ b/src/signal-handling.c
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ static void jl_shuffle_int_array_inplace(int *carray, int size, uint64_t *seed)
     // The "modern Fisher–Yates shuffle" - O(n) algorithm
     // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher%E2%80%93Yates_shuffle#The_modern_algorithm
     for (int i = size; i-- > 1; ) {
-        size_t j = cong(i, seed);
+        size_t j = cong(i + 1, seed); // cong is an open interval so we add 1
         uint64_t tmp = carray[j];
         carray[j] = carray[i];
         carray[i] = tmp;