Overview
- UPSC implemented the face-authentication protocol for the Civil Services and IFS Preliminary Exam held on May 24, 2026, to prevent proxy candidates and impersonation.
- The application performs a live, real-time match between the photo uploaded at application and the candidate at entry, requiring about 6–8 seconds per check.
- The rollout ran across all 2,072 exam venues, was used by more than 7,000 invigilators, handled roughly 5.49 lakh candidates and reached peak throughput near 12,000 authentications per minute.
- UPSC developed the solution in-house with technical support from the National e-Governance Division, issued detailed SOPs and trained invigilators who used standard Android phones to keep costs low.
- The Commission will evaluate operational, privacy and audit findings before deciding whether to expand the checks to the Mains and Personality Test stages, a change that could cut impersonation risk and alter entry procedures for candidates.