New Delhi: All candidates appearing for recruitment examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will be required to undergo face authentication at examination centres, officials said on Saturday.

The move is aimed at further strengthening the integrity and security of the examination process.
“All candidates appearing in the UPSC examination will undergo face authentication at the venue,” the Commission said in a note on its website.

The UPSC conducts several recruitment examinations for government services, including the Civil Services Examination to select officers for the IAS, IFS and IPS.

The decision follows the successful implementation of a pilot project using artificial intelligence-based facial authentication during the NDA and NA (II) Examination, 2025 and the CDS (II) Examination, 2025, held on September 14 last year.

The pilot was carried out at select centres in Gurugram, where candidates' facial images captured at the venue were digitally matched with the photographs submitted during registration.

According to UPSC Chairman Ajay Kumar, the system reduced verification time to an average of eight to ten seconds per candidate, significantly streamlining entry procedures while adding an additional layer of security.