Methods and systems for generating defect samples are provided. One method includes identifying a set of defects detected on a wafer having the most diversity in values of at least one defect attribute and generating different tiles for different defects in the set. The tiles define a portion of all values for the at least one attribute of all defects detected on the wafer that are closer to the values for the at least one attribute of their corresponding defects than the values for the at least one attribute of other defects. In addition, the method includes separating the defects on the wafer into sample bins corresponding to the different tiles based on their values of the at least one attribute, randomly selecting defect(s) from each of two or more of the sample bins, and creating a defect sample for the wafer that includes the randomly selected defects.