Samsung R&D interview, one problem, three hours, every test case.

Samsung does not publish the India process. The rounds below come from candidate reports from 2018 to 2026 for SRI-B, SRI-Noida and SRI-Delhi, marked as reported. Not every drive uses the Advance test: one SRI-B intern drive in 2020 used a 65-minute, three-question test on CoCubes instead.

The Advance test is one problem in about three hours, run on Samsung's own proctored software, which candidates report detects remote access and other applications. Recent reports name C, C++, Java and Python. Your code runs against hidden test cases, often 50, and candidates report that you need every one to pass. Submissions are limited. Older SRI-B and Noida reports say the STL and other library collections were banned; a 2024 report lists four languages with no such rule, so read your invite for the current rules and practise writing a queue, a stack and a heap yourself either way. The test descends from Samsung's SW competency test in Korea, which gives two problems in 240 minutes.

• Detect a cycle in a graph: Reported in 2018 and 2024. Use DFS with three states (unvisited, on the stack, done): an edge to a node on the stack is a cycle. For undirected graphs, skip the edge back to the parent. Keep parent links to print the cycle, and run from every unvisited node so disconnected parts are covered.
• Shortest path on a grid or game board: Reported as Mario and airplane style boards. Model each cell, and any extra state such as remaining bombs or fuel, as a node, then run BFS when moves cost the same, or Dijkstra when they do not. Write your own queue as an array with head and tail indices, which works with or without library rules.
• Smallest value that makes something possible: Reported as binary search problems (SDE-1, 2022). When a check such as "can we reach the end with jump K" is monotonic, binary search the answer and run a BFS or greedy check at each step.
• Exhaustive search with a small N: Constraints of about 10 to 15 point to backtracking or bitmask DP. Recurse, mark, recurse, unmark, and cut branches that already cost more than the best answer found.
• Getting all test cases to pass: Read the input format twice, since the test often reads several test cases from one input. Reset every global array between cases, use 64-bit integers for sums, and test a tiny case, an empty case and the largest case by hand before you spend a submission.

Calibrd cannot rehearse the timed test. It can prepare you for the technical and HR interviews that follow it.

Candidate reports point to the same things at every stage of the process.

• Code that is fully correct on every input, edge cases included
• Graph and search algorithms written from scratch, without leaning on library helpers
• Solid computer science fundamentals: operating systems, memory, OOP, databases and networks
• Projects you can explain line by line
• Short, clear answers in the HR round

Candidates report these questions and themes from SRI-B, SRI-Noida and SRI-Delhi processes from 2018 to 2026. The practice prompts are written in our own words to match the reported problem types; Samsung's actual problems rotate.

Self-reported figures from Levels.fyi for Samsung software engineers in Bengaluru, read 5 October 2026, from 1,460 Samsung software engineer submissions worldwide. They cover Samsung in Bengaluru as a whole, mostly SRI-B. The ladder runs Engineer I (L2), Engineer II (L3), Senior Engineer (L4) and Staff Engineer (L5) upward, with pay mostly in base salary and little or no stock.

1. Practise one hard graph or search problem a day in three hours, and count it solved only when every edge case passes.
2. Write BFS, DFS, Dijkstra, a queue and a min-heap from memory, without library containers.
3. Before each submission, test a tiny case, an empty case and the largest case, and reset globals between test cases.
4. Revise operating systems, DBMS, networks and C++ OOP, including virtual functions and pointers.
5. Prepare a two-minute walkthrough of each project on your CV, and the hardest bug in it.
6. Keep HR answers short and direct; know your notice period and joining date.

This guide covers software hiring at Samsung's R&D institutes in India: SRI-B in Bengaluru, SRI-Noida and SRI-Delhi. It does not cover Samsung's hiring in Korea, which uses the GSAT aptitude test and its own version of the SW test. For management and leadership roles the loop is similar but the bar shifts to people, delivery and strategy, so pair it with the leadership interview prep hub. The bar for your exact role comes from the role-by-role guides, and the prep that actually transfers is spoken, so run a mock interview before the real one.

Also interviewing at Mercari, Rakuten or Coupang? Their guides follow the same format, from the first screen to the offer.

• 01Samsung Research, SRI-Bangalorethe largest R&D centre outside South Korea, and its research areas, from modems and AI to Tizen.
• 02Samsung Newsroom India, SRI-B celebrates 30 years (24 February 2026)founded in 1996 as Samsung India Software Operations, nearly 2,000 employees at the event, the 3G to 5G and Galaxy work.
• 03Samsung Careers Korea, hiring processthe Korean SW test: two problems in 240 minutes in C, C++, Java or Python, and the separate GSAT.
• 04GeeksforGeeks, SRI-Delhi SDE intern with PPO (October 2024)3 hours, one cycle detection problem on Samsung's own platform, Java, C++, Python or C, five submissions, graph interview questions and the HR round.
• 05GeeksforGeeks, Samsung R&D Noida online assessment (2025)one problem with 50 test cases in 3 hours, proctoring software, BFS, DFS and shortest path topics, and 40 to 10 to 5 candidates.
• 06GeeksforGeeks, Samsung R&D SDE-1 (October 2022)a 3-hour Advanced test on binary search, a 4-hour Professional test on backtracking, then technical and HR rounds.
• 07GeeksforGeeks, Samsung R&D Noida on campus (2018)one problem in 3 hours, 50 test cases, the Mario style board and the cycle problem, then OS and pointers.
• 08GeeksforGeeks, SRI-B on campus (2019)the no-STL rule in that year's test and the airplane grid problem.
• 09GeeksforGeeks, SRI-B R&D intern (2020)a different format: three questions in 65 minutes on CoCubes, then OOP, vtable and SQL questions.
• 10Reddit r/Btechtards, Samsung OA and interview experience (2026)a single question for three hours with ten submission attempts.
• 11Levels.fyi, Samsung software engineer pay in Bengaluruthe level names and the self-reported range, read 5 October 2026.

Interview processes change. This reflects widely-reported and sourced conditions as of 2026 — confirm specifics with your recruiter, and treat it as a map rather than a guarantee.