UPSC implements real-time face authentication for civil services exams

THe unification Public serve direction (UPSC) successfully implemented real-time human face hallmark across all examination venues during the Civil Services and Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination this year, a government statement said on Thursday.The face-authentication protocol ensures that the candidate who uploaded a photograph while submitting the application is the same person appearing for the examination with the admit card.The system enabled live verification of candidates at examination venues through a mobile-phone-based application used by invigilators, helping eliminate impersonation. Earlier this year, the commission had said, “All candidates appearing in the UPSC examination will undergo face authentication at the venue.”The UPSC Civil Services Examination is one of the most competitive exams in the country, attracting a large number of applicants every year. Last year, 937,876 candidates applied for the examination, of whom 576,793 actually appeared on May 25, 2025. A total of 14,161 candidates qualified for the Written (Main) Examination, and 2,736 of those qualified for the Personality Test. Finally, only 958 candidates were selected for appointment to different services.According to the UPSC statement, the real-time face-authentication exercise was conducted across all 2,072 examination venues nationwide during this year’s Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination on May 24. The application was developed and implemented by the Commission with technical support from the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.Commission’s statement said that, as part of the process, every candidate was required to undergo face authentication before being allowed entry into the examination hall. UPSC also developed a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) for the exercise, which it shared with states, districts and examination venues. Multiple rounds of training were subsequently conducted for invigilators.The Commission said the system does not require any specialised hardware and can operate on any Android smartphone. Invigilators used their own mobile phones for the authentication process, reducing hardware costs and easing logistical requirements.The application authenticated candidates within six to eight seconds on average, ensuring smooth entry and preventing queues at examination centres, the Commission said. It added that more than 7,000 invigilators used the application simultaneously and, during peak entry hours, it processed around 12,000 authentications every minute.UPSC Chairman Ajay Kumar said the initiative aimed at ensuring impersonation-free examinations. “The technology is fully developed in-house with help of NeGD. However, the challenge also lay in deploying the solution at scale, leveraging the existing invigilation workforce for face authentication, training them, and accomplishing all this within a short span of time,” he added.