Nothing much to add since everyone has chimed in so much.

However, every pilot will tell you it's based on weather - wind speed and direction. If winds are dead calm and don't favor one particular runway, it's usually a convenience of departure corridors, traffic, etc.

I don't know any way to guarantee you will have a particular runway in advance. Things change. If you have an active runway, say 24 (meaning 240 degrees magnetic), and the winds change to favor runway 18 (180 degrees magnetic) then that's what will happen. Or a controller may opt for a particular runway or change it due to traffic or other.

If you are on the ground in the terminal before you board, and have a radio that picks up aviation bands, you can tune in to that particular airports ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) to try and see what the winds are, and if there is a runway or runways being used. Then you could try and change your seat based on this before you board. At very large airports, like ATL, this is going to be very hard to guess even with ATIS.

Good luck!