diff --git a/ridges/validator/generate_problem.py b/ridges/validator/generate_problem.py
index bd73e31..29942d3 100644
--- a/ridges/validator/generate_problem.py
+++ b/ridges/validator/generate_problem.py
@@ -62,11 +62,16 @@ class ListOfGeneratedProblems(BaseModel):
 
 
 def highest_cosine_filepair_selector(file_pairs: List[FilePair]) -> FilePair:
-    selected_file_pair = sorted(
+    if len(file_pairs) < 1:
+        raise ValueError("No file pairs found")
+
+    top_ten_file_pairs = sorted(
         file_pairs,
         key=lambda x: float(x.cosine_similarity),
         reverse=True
-    )[random.randint(1, 10)]
+    )[:10]
+
+    selected_file_pair = random.choice(top_ten_file_pairs)
 
     return selected_file_pair