DECENTRALIZED EXAMINATION PLATFORM FOR SECURE QUESTION PAPERS

Abstract

The increasing incidents of examination paper leakage and unauthorized data manipulation in centralized systems pose a serious threat to the integrity of academic assessments. Traditional centralized databases are vulnerable to hacking, insider threats, and tampering by privileged users, making them unreliable for secure question paper management. To address these challenges, this project proposes a decentralized examination platform using blockchain technology for secure and tamperproof storage of question papers. The system leverages blockchain’s inherent features such as immutability, transparency, and cryptographic security to ensure that once data is stored, it cannot be altered without detection. Smart contracts developed using Solidity are utilized to manage user authentication, question storage, and student performance tracking. Due to blockchain’s storage limitations, the system integrates the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to store question papers, while only the corresponding hash values are stored on the blockchain, ensuring efficient and secure data handling. The platform supports multiple user roles including admin, teacher, and student, each with specific functionalities such as user management, question uploading, exam participation, and result evaluation. Any attempt to tamper with stored data results in hash mismatches, enabling immediate detection of unauthorized changes. Experimental implementation demonstrates that the proposed system ensures secure, transparent, and reliable examination management. This approach significantly enhances data integrity, prevents question leakage, and builds trust in digital examination systems, making it highly suitable for modern educational institutions.