Computer-Based Test Crashed During Your Exam: What to Do Next

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

Ravi sat for a state recruitment computer-based test in Lucknow. Twenty minutes in, his screen froze. The invigilator restarted the machine, but four minutes of clock time were gone and two answered questions had vanished. He finished rattled, scored below the cut-off by three marks, and went home sure he had been cheated by a server, not by the questions.

If this is your situation, the next two hours matter more than the next two weeks. Raise a written complaint at the test centre before you leave, get it acknowledged in the centre's incident register, note the lab and system number, and keep your admit card. Then send a written grievance to the conducting body within the window it announces, asking for the server log, the biometric and login log, and the CCTV reference for your seat. The conducting body, if it is a public agency, holds these records, so you can also seek them by RTI.

A CBT failure is invisible after you stand up. The proof lives in three places, and all three are timestamped:

• The centre incident register or technical log, where the invigilator records system failures, restarts and time compensation.
• The server and audit log held by the testing partner, which shows your login, idle gaps, restarts and the exact time credited back to you.
• The CCTV and biometric record, which ties the failure to your seat and your candidate ID.

If you walk out without getting the incident noted, you are left arguing memory against machine records. So your first job is to create a record the body cannot later deny.

1. Tell the invigilator at once and ask them to record the failure in the centre's incident register or technical sheet. Ask for the entry to mention your roll number, lab and system number, the time of failure and the time restored.
2. Write a short complaint on paper, sign it, and ask the centre in-charge to sign and stamp an acknowledgement copy for you.
3. Note your lab number, system number and seat number. Photograph nothing inside the hall, but write these down the moment you exit.
4. Keep the admit card, the rough sheet if returned, and any SMS or email from the conducting body.
5. If time was lost and not credited, say so in writing on the spot. A restart without added time is the most common, and most provable, defect.

Most conducting bodies, such as recruitment boards and university CBT cells, open a grievance or objection window for a few days after the exam or after the answer key. File inside it. Late complaints are routinely rejected for delay, so the window is a deadline trap.

State the defect in one line: “System [number] in lab [number] failed at [time] for [minutes]; lost time was not credited; two saved responses were lost on restart.” Attach the acknowledged on-spot complaint. Ask for one specific remedy: a re-test, time-credit verification against the server log, or a re-scoring after the lost responses are restored.

If the conducting body is a public authority, a government recruitment board, a public university, a central agency, the audit logs are records under the RTI Act, 2005. Ask for them precisely. The body may withhold another candidate's data and exam security material, but your own login and failure record is yours.

To: The Public Information Officer, [Recruitment Board / University /
Conducting Agency]

Subject: Application under the RTI Act, 2005 regarding technical failure
during CBT held on [date] at [centre name]

For Roll No. [number], candidate ID [number], lab [number], system
[number], exam held on [date], shift [forenoon/afternoon]:

1. Please provide the centre incident report and technical failure log
   for the said lab and system on the exam date.
2. Please provide the server audit log showing my login time, any
   restarts or idle periods, and the time credited back to me.
3. Please state whether any extra time was sanctioned for my session and
   the basis on which it was calculated.
4. Please provide the rule or notice governing time compensation and
   re-test in case of a technical failure.
5. Please provide the number of candidates at this centre who reported a
   technical failure on this date.

I enclose the application fee of Rs 10 by [mode].

[Name, address, mobile, email, date]

The last question matters. If many candidates at one centre failed, that points to a centre-wide fault, which strengthens any case for a centre-level re-test rather than an individual fix.

Be honest about outcomes. A re-test is most likely when the failure was centre-wide, the lost time was clearly not credited, and the records confirm it. An individual machine glitch that the centre fixed with time compensation rarely leads to a re-test, because the body will say the loss was made good. RTI still helps here: if the server log shows the credited time was less than the time lost, you have a concrete, document-based grievance instead of a feeling.

If the conducting body ignores you or closes the grievance without reasons, escalate to its head and, for a recruitment exam, to the parent department through CPGRAMS. Courts have intervened in CBT-failure matters, but usually only with strong record evidence and where many candidates were affected. Build the record first.

• Leaving the centre without a signed acknowledgement of the on-spot complaint.
• Missing the grievance or objection window announced after the exam.
• Asking for a re-test without first checking whether lost time was credited.
• Posting your roll number and full admit card publicly while complaining.
• Treating the testing partner as the target. The conducting public body holds the records and answers the RTI.

• Answer sheet copy and revaluation result not provided
• Degree verification delayed
• Convocation certificate missing
• Practical Guides hub

See also how to file RTI online and first and second appeals.

Yes, if the lost time was not credited or saved responses disappeared. Get the failure recorded in the centre register on the spot. That is your only proof once you leave.

Complain to the conducting body, which is the recruitment board, university or agency. The testing partner runs the software, but the public body owns the exam, holds the records and answers your RTI.

No. RTI gets you the server log, incident report and time-credit record. You use those documents in your grievance to argue for a re-test or a re-score.

The centre incident register entry made at the time, plus the server audit log showing the restart and the time credited back. Together they pin the failure to your seat and session.

Use the grievance or objection window the conducting body announces, usually a few days. File inside it. A late complaint is often rejected for delay alone.

Yes. A centre-wide failure is a stronger case for a re-test than a single machine glitch. Ask in your RTI how many candidates at that centre reported a failure that day.

Download the CBT technical failure complaint checklist (PDF).