Recall that in a triangulated category, all monomorphisms split (have a retraction). Let $F:C\to D$ be an exact functor between triangulated categories. It is an easy exercise to see that if $F$ is faithful then it detects monomorphisms: If $F(f)$ is a monomorphism then so is $f$. Same with epimorphisms of course, and with isomorphisms. But what about semi-simplicity in the following sense?
Definition: Let us say that a morphism $f$ is semi-simple if there exists $g$ in the opposite direction such that $f=fgf$. (BTW, what is the right name for this?) Assuming $C$ idempotent-complete, $f$ is semi-simple $\iff$ $f$ is a composition of a split epimorphism, an isomorphism and a split monomorphism $\iff$ the exact triangle over $f$ is a sum of trivial triangles.
After trying for a while, I suspect that $F$ faithful is not enough to detect semi-simplicity, so:
Problem: Find an exact faithful functor $F:C\to D$ between idempotent-complete triangulated categories and a morphism $f$ in $C$ which is not semi-simple but such that $F(f)$ is semi-simple in $D$.
Of course, it might also be true that faithfulness detects semi-simplicity. A proof of that would certainly count as an answer to the above problem!
What would make me really happy would be to have $F=(\ F:C\to C\ ,\ \mu:F^2\to F\ ,\ \eta:Id\to F\ )$ an exact faithful monad (a.k.a. triple) on the category $C=D$. In that case, $F$ faithful forces the unit $\eta$ to be objectwise a split monomorphism. If $\eta$ has moreover a natural retraction then $F$ detects semi-simplicity (easy) but this naturality of the retraction definitely fails for general monads.