C# - elegant way of partitioning a list?

Here is an extension method that will do what you want:

public static IEnumerable<List<T>> Partition<T>(this IList<T> source, Int32 size)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < (source.Count / size) + (source.Count % size > 0 ? 1 : 0); i++)
        yield return new List<T>(source.Skip(size * i).Take(size));
}

Edit: Here is a much cleaner version of the function:

public static IEnumerable<List<T>> Partition<T>(this IList<T> source, Int32 size)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < Math.Ceiling(source.Count / (Double)size); i++)
        yield return new List<T>(source.Skip(size * i).Take(size));
}

Using LINQ you could cut your groups up in a single line of code like this...

var x = new List<int>() { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 };

var groups = x.Select((i, index) => new
{
    i,
    index
}).GroupBy(group => group.index / 4, element => element.i);

You could then iterate over the groups like the following...

foreach (var group in groups)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Group: {0}", group.Key);

    foreach (var item in group)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("\tValue: {0}", item);
    }
}

and you'll get an output that looks like this...

Group: 0
        Value: 1
        Value: 2
        Value: 3
        Value: 4
Group: 1
        Value: 5
        Value: 6
        Value: 7
        Value: 8
Group: 2
        Value: 9
        Value: 10
        Value: 11

Something like (untested air code):

IEnumerable<IList<T>> PartitionList<T>(IList<T> list, int maxCount)
{
    List<T> partialList = new List<T>(maxCount);
    foreach(T item in list)
    {
        if (partialList.Count == maxCount)
        {
           yield return partialList;
           partialList = new List<T>(maxCount);
        }
        partialList.Add(item);
    }
    if (partialList.Count > 0) yield return partialList;
}

This returns an enumeration of lists rather than a list of lists, but you can easily wrap the result in a list:

IList<IList<T>> listOfLists = new List<T>(PartitionList<T>(list, maxCount));

To avoid grouping, mathematics and reiteration.

The method avoids unnecessary calculations, comparisons and allocations. Parameter validation is included.

Here is a working demonstration on fiddle.

public static IEnumerable<IList<T>> Partition<T>(
    this IEnumerable<T> source,
    int size)
{
    if (size < 2)
    {
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(
            nameof(size),
            size,
            "Must be greater or equal to 2.");  
    }

    T[] partition;
    int count;

    using (var e = source.GetEnumerator())
    {
        if (e.MoveNext())
        {
            partition = new T[size];
            partition[0] = e.Current;
            count = 1;
        }
        else
        {
            yield break;    
        }

        while(e.MoveNext())
        {
            partition[count] = e.Current;
            count++;

            if (count == size)
            {
                yield return partition;
                count = 0;
                partition = new T[size];
            }
        }
    }

    if (count > 0)
    {
        Array.Resize(ref partition, count);
        yield return partition;
    }
}

var yourList = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 };
var groupSize = 4;

// here's the actual query that does the grouping...
var query = yourList
    .Select((x, i) => new { x, i })
    .GroupBy(i => i.i / groupSize, x => x.x);

// and here's a quick test to ensure that it worked properly...
foreach (var group in query)
{
    foreach (var item in group)
    {
        Console.Write(item + ",");
    }
    Console.WriteLine();
}

If you need an actual List<List<T>> rather than an IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> then change the query as follows:

var query = yourList
    .Select((x, i) => new { x, i })
    .GroupBy(i => i.i / groupSize, x => x.x)
    .Select(g => g.ToList())
    .ToList();