Powering India's Largest Technical Hackathon: How C-DAC Assessed 20,000 Students with 10K Concurrent Candidates
About C-DAC
C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) is India's premier R&D organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, to develop indigenous supercomputing capabilities. Beyond pioneering PARAM supercomputers, C-DAC runs extensive education and training programs across India, preparing thousands of students for careers in advanced computing, electronics, and emerging technologies.
The Challenge
C-DAC needed to conduct the preliminary screening round for a national-level hackathon with 20,000 registered students. The competition involved teams of 3 to 5 members, where each student would be assessed individually, but team performance would be calculated based on the total points scored collectively. The organization faced several critical requirements:
- Supporting peak concurrency of 10,000 simultaneous test-takers without performance degradation
- Ensuring question randomization to maintain assessment integrity across such a large pool
- Distributing unique test links to each registered student via email
- Collecting granular data to calculate team scores and determine which teams would advance to subsequent rounds
- Managing the logistical complexity of team-based evaluation at scale
The Solution
AutoProctor delivered a comprehensive assessment infrastructure tailored to C-DAC's hackathon requirements:
- Question Bank Randomization
Created extensive question banks containing hundreds of questions per topic area. By deploying question bank quizzes, AutoProctor ensured that each student received a different set of questions, preventing answer sharing while maintaining assessment validity across the massive candidate pool. - Automated Email Distribution with Unique Links
Integrated email distribution directly through AutoProctor's platform, automatically generating and sending unique, secure test links to each registered student. This eliminated manual link generation and ensured proper tracking of individual attempts. - High-Concurrency Infrastructure
Built a robust backend capable of handling 10,000 concurrent test sessions without latency or downtime, ensuring a smooth assessment experience even during peak participation windows. - Comprehensive Data Export
Configured custom dashboards that allowed the C-DAC team to monitor live assessment progress. Once testing concluded, all results were exportable as detailed Excel files containing individual scores, timestamps, and metadata required to calculate team performance and determine advancement to the next round.
Results and Impact
- 20,000 students assessed in the preliminary hackathon round
- 10,000 concurrent test-takers supported simultaneously with zero downtime
- Hundreds of randomized questions deployed per subject to ensure assessment security
- Automated email delivery of unique test links to all registered participants
- Team-based analytics enabled through comprehensive data exports
AutoProctor enabled C-DAC to conduct one of India's largest technical hackathons with complete operational efficiency. The combination of question randomization, automated distribution, and high-concurrency infrastructure ensured that assessment integrity remained intact even at scale. By exporting granular results data, C-DAC's team could seamlessly calculate team scores and identify the top performers advancing to subsequent competition rounds. AutoProctor's reliability allowed C-DAC to focus on the hackathon's educational objectives rather than technical logistics.
Really good service and prompt response. Conducted an All-India level Hackathon very smoothly with 10K+ participants. Thanks for the support provided.
Pranose
Senior Engineer, CDAC
