The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has successfully implemented a real-time face authentication system during the Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2026, marking a major step towards ensuring transparency and preventing impersonation in one of India’s most competitive exams.
According to the Commission, the technology verifies whether the candidate appearing at the examination centre matches the photograph uploaded during the application process. Conducted across 2,072 examination venues on May 24, the system authenticated candidates through mobile-phone-based verification carried out by invigilators.
Of the 8.19 lakh applicants, nearly 5.49 lakh candidates appeared for the examination. Developed by UPSC with technical support from the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the solution worked on standard Android smartphones, eliminating the need for expensive hardware.
The authentication process took just 6–8 seconds per candidate and handled nearly 12,000 verifications per minute during peak entry hours. UPSC Chairman Ajay Kumar said the initiative was designed to ensure impersonation-free examinations and highlighted the successful deployment of the system across more than 2,000 centres nationwide.
