Coding questions
Samsung Online Assessment
Overview
Here is how public prep guides and student write-ups describe the Samsung online assessment. This is not an official company brochure.
Some Samsung SDE campus OAs are famous for one very hard problem with full test-case pass requirement rather than a multi-section aptitude paper.
Usual selection rounds
Rounds students usually mention: Online assessment (often 1 hard coding problem, long duration) → Multiple technical interviews → HR
| Item | From student reports |
|---|---|
| Platform | On-campus TPO lab (GFG account) |
| Online test summary | GFG SDE-I FTE: 3-hour OA with a single hard DP problem (Burst Balloons cited); unlimited compiles but ≤10 submits; must pass all ~50 tests. |
| Eligibility notes | GFG SDE-I account: CGPA above 7, no backlogs |
| Branches (reported) | Drive-specific |
Online test sections
| Section | Questions | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 hard problem | 3 hours | All test cases required; submit limit matters |
Extra notes from sources
- Other Samsung drives (e.g. SX coding tests) use different patterns - do not assume Burst-Balloons style for every Samsung brand.
Sample practice question styles
These are practice questions for speed - not claimed to be from a real Samsung live paper.
Coding Q1: Move zeros
Problem: Move all zeros in an array to the end while keeping the relative order of non-zero elements.
Approach: Two pointers: write non-zeros toward the front, then fill the remainder with zeros. Or swap zeros as you scan.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(1) space
Samsung tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q2: Rotate array
Problem: Rotate an array to the right by k steps. Example: [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], k = 3 → [5,6,7,1,2,3,4].
Approach: Normalize k %= n. Reverse the whole array, reverse the first k elements, then reverse the rest. That yields the rotation in place.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(1) space
Samsung tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q3: First unique character
Problem: Find the first non-repeating character in a string and return its index, or -1 if none exists.
Approach: Count frequencies in one pass (hash map or array of 26 for lowercase). Second pass returns the first index with count 1.
Complexity: O(n) time
Samsung tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q4: Stack with min
Problem: Design a stack that supports push, pop, top, and getMin in average O(1) time.
Approach: Keep a parallel min-stack (or store pairs). When pushing, also push the new minimum. When popping, pop both stacks.
Complexity: O(1) per operation amortized
Samsung tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Prep tips from those student reports
- For SDE R&D-style OA: practice hard DP/graphs under long contests with full AC requirement
- Confirm whether your drive is SX / product / SDE - patterns differ
Sources
These notes come from public reports and can differ by campus, year, and role. If your college placement email or the official careers/notification PDF says something different, follow that.
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