Exam Cookie
Ensuring Exam Integrity: ExamCookie’s macOS Surveillance Solution
2024
Scale
Medium
Public schools and high school in dk
Cost of failure
Critical
Failure of the application would impact students ability to attend exam.
Performance opportunity
Medium
Performance is important, as the application runs concurrently in the background of the computer.
Domain complexity
Complex
Highly concurrent system heavily utilizing multi hreading for processing different observed areas like CPU, clipboard, screen buffer etc.
The challenge
ExamCookie needed to develop a macOS application for exam surveillance, ensuring academic integrity during on-site, written exams. The solution had to monitor every aspect of the candidate’s computer usage, including processes, clipboard activity, network interactions, and CPU performance, to detect and prevent cheating. The challenge was to create a secure, non-intrusive system that would work seamlessly on macOS while respecting user privacy.
Our contribution
We developed the macOS client for ExamCookie, which provided comprehensive surveillance during exams. The software tracked all active processes, clipboard changes, network activity, and CPU usage, sending real-time data to a secure server for analysis. Our team focused on ensuring the solution was lightweight, unobtrusive, and easy to install while maintaining rigorous security standards. The result was a reliable and efficient tool that helped educational institutions ensure exam integrity without compromising the student’s experience or privacy.
