We provide a sufficient characterization for subsets \(\mathcal {A}\) of the polynomial ring \(\mathbb {F}_q[t]\) for which partial sums of Steinhaus random multiplicative functions approach a complex standard normal distribution. This extends recent work of Soundararajan and Xu to the function field setting. We apply this characterization to deduce central limit theorems in four cases: polynomials in short intervals, polynomials with few prime factors, shifted primes, and rough polynomials. In doing so, we also establish an explicit Hildebrand inequality for smooth polynomials in short intervals, a function field form of Shiu’s theorem for multiplicative functions, and an explicit Chebyshev bound for rough polynomials in short intervals.
