PayPal vs Samsung Interview Questions
PayPal lists 105 LeetCode interview questions while Samsung lists 65. They share 20 problems — 19% of PayPal's bank and 31% of Samsung's. Focus on the overlap first, then drill into 85 PayPal-only and 45 Samsung-only questions.
Overview
Preparation Strategy
Step 1 — Shared core: Solve the 20 overlapping problems first. These are the highest-yield questions for candidates interviewing at both PayPal and Samsung.
Step 2 — Company-specific depth: Add PayPal-specific problems like Zigzag Conversion, Minimum Absolute Difference, Count Vowel Strings in Ranges and Samsung-specific problems from the exclusive lists below.
Step 3 — Difficulty tuning: Samsung skews harder in our data. Budget extra time for Hard problems if you are targeting that company.
Difficulty Comparison
Top Shared Topics
20 Shared Questions
High-priority problems to practice for both PayPal and Samsung.
| Problem | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium |
| LRU Cache | Medium |
| Number of Islands | Medium |
| Word Search | Medium |
| Coin Change | Medium |
| Two Sum | Easy |
| Merge Intervals | Medium |
| Search in Rotated Sorted Array | Medium |
| Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock | Easy |
| Maximum Subarray | Medium |
| Find Peak Element | Medium |
| Valid Parentheses | Easy |
| Trapping Rain Water | Hard |
| Sort Colors | Medium |
| Rotate Image | Medium |
| Median of Two Sorted Arrays | Hard |
| 3Sum | Medium |
| Move Zeroes | Easy |
| Rotting Oranges | Medium |
| Longest Palindromic Substring | Medium |
Unique to PayPal (85)
Problems in PayPal's list that do not appear at Samsung.
Unique to Samsung (45)
Problems in Samsung's list that do not appear at PayPal.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LeetCode questions do PayPal and Samsung share?
PayPal and Samsung share 20 LeetCode interview questions. 85 problems appear only in PayPal's list and 45 appear only in Samsung's list.
What topics overlap most between PayPal and Samsung?
The most common shared topics between PayPal and Samsung are Array (17 shared questions), Dynamic Programming (6 shared questions), Two Pointers (5 shared questions), Binary Search (4 shared questions), Matrix (4 shared questions). Mastering these areas prepares you for both companies.
Which company asks harder LeetCode questions: PayPal or Samsung?
PayPal has 19 Easy, 69 Medium, and 17 Hard questions. Samsung has 12 Easy, 36 Medium, and 17 Hard questions. Samsung has a higher proportion of Hard problems in its interview set.
How should I prepare if interviewing at both PayPal and Samsung?
Start with the 20 shared problems since they cover what both companies ask most often. Then add 20 PayPal-specific and 20 Samsung-specific questions to round out your prep.