CBSE advisory cautions against misinformation about QR codes on question papers

THe telephone exchange room of Secondary breeding (CBSE) has issued an consultative, cautioning students, parents and media against “misinformation” surrounding QR codes on oppugn papers. It clarified that the codes are not clickable web links but are part of its internal systems designed for authentication, tracking and maintaining examination integrity.“They do not open as web links when scanned and only display intended text,” said the advisory issued late on Thursday amid reports of users manually searching QR-related strings online and encountering unrelated results, including references to individuals.The clarification followed online buzz after QR codes on CBSE question papers, particularly the Class 12 history paper on March 30, sparked confusion among students. Some claimed that scanning the codes led to search results related to influencer Orry.The question paper carried three QR codes. The first displayed “61501” (the paper code), the second showed “HHIISSTT” (the first three letters of the subject) and the third “OOORRRYYY” (the last three letters of the subject).When students searched the distorted text online, search engines auto-corrected it to “Orry”, leading to unrelated results. On April 1, Orry posted an Instagram video joking about the episode, calling it “an extremely large and appropriate honour” to feature on a national exam paper. He added he felt “humbled to be part of Indian history, both literary and metaphorically.”The advisory stressed that such results are “algorithm-driven outputs” of search engines and have no connection with its examination processes.The CBSE said certain elements are deliberately misrepresenting unrelated search results to create false propaganda and malign the board. The linking of QR codes to unrelated individuals or content is factually incorrect and misleading.The advisory urged people to refrain from sharing unverified claims and to rely only on official communication channels for information. “Exercise caution against amplifying content that may distort institutional credibility.”It reiterated the need for responsible information sharing, emphasising that only verified and factual details should be circulated to maintain public trust in examination systems.The QR code on the Class 12 mathematics paper (March 9) led to a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”, which has been at the centre of one of the internet’s longest-running pranks. Rickrolling, as the prank is known, involves tricking someone into clicking a link that unexpectedly leads to the music video.The CBSE on March 10 quashed concerns about the integrity of the examination, issuing a press release confirming that the question papers were genuine. “The security of the question papers remains uncompromised,” CBSE exam controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said in a statement.The board said the issue, “it appears”, was confined to a few question paper sets in which one of the QR codes, when scanned, linked to the YouTube video.The CBSE began printing QR codes on question papers following a 2019 paper leak, when the Class 12 economics and Class 10 mathematics papers were circulated on social media and messaging platforms before the examinations. The leak forced the board to re-conduct the Class 12 economics examination. The board decided against re-conducting the Class 10 mathematics exam, saying the leak was limited and many students had appeared.Each QR code on a question paper typically acts as a digital identifier, embedding information such as the subject, exam date, question paper set, and printing batch. The identifiers help authorities track the distribution chain of question papers and trace the source in case of a leak. When scanned with a regular mobile phone, they generally display either a coded string or a set of alphanumeric identifiers linked to CBSE’s internal database, which authorised systems can then decode to verify the paper’s origin.