At a glance
| Hackathon | She Solves 3.0 (PCCOE ACM-W) · Theme "Time Stone - Ideas Beyond Time" · Track: Web & Software Development · Domain: Education |
|---|---|
| Problem | Students can't easily check whether a certificate is genuine, or what it is worth in the job market. |
| Solution | CertWise: one free check for any certificate - is it genuine? and what is it worth? - with a source for every fact. |
| This copy | Open CertWise version 2 - a copy of the original with four additions. The original is unchanged and still live at personalpurva.github.io/certwise (code: github.com/PersonalPurva/certwise). This copy's code: github.com/PersonalPurva/certwise-v2 (the Round 2 repository), live at personalpurva.github.io/certwise-v2. Both are also on the Purva9665 account: purva9665.github.io/certwise and purva9665.github.io/certwise-v2. |
| Rounds | Round 1 - idea + 6-slide PPT, 3 Oct 2026 - cleared: we are one of 41 shortlisted teams · Round 2 - prototype + public GitHub repository + online demo, submitted on Unstop from 5 Oct (we are a non-PCCOE team) · Round 3 - 5-hour build at PCCOE, 9 Oct |
| Status | 44 certificates · 17 official verification methods · UGC fake-university list · check any certificate with 3 questions · live check with the issuer (Credly, Coursera, edX) · certificate upload (image or PDF, 5 MB limit) with a text reader · camera QR scan · downloadable PDF report · 149 automated tests passing · monthly refresh built, waiting for a key |
Jump to: History · Research · Does it already exist? · How issuers verify · What we built · Data refresh · Testing · What's next
History
Every request and decision in order (IST). Updated every time the project changes.
| When | Request / decision | What was done |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Oct, 10:24 AM | Teammates proposed a platform that only checks a certificate's genuineness and market value score. Does it already exist? | Checked government systems, verification companies, salary / value tools, SIH 2025 statements and hackathon projects (see Does it already exist?). |
| 3 Oct, ~10:45 AM | Explained why SIH lists were checked. | SIH publishes how many teams submitted ideas for each statement - the best public measure of how crowded an idea is among student teams. |
| 3 Oct, ~10:50 AM | Decision: this is now our problem statement. Dive as deep as possible. | Deep research: how every issuer verifies certificates, the UGC fake-university list, data sources for market value, privacy law, and close existing tools (CertForge, SEEK Pass, Reclaim Protocol, TrueDoc, LegitDoc, Certopus, CertifyMe). |
| 3 Oct, ~11:00 AM | Change everything we have made, and remove everything previous. | Rebuilt the app (genuineness check + market value score + QR from a photo), the 6-slide deck, the slide notes, the README and this log. The earlier version is removed (it stays only in the GitHub commit history). |
| 3 Oct, ~1:00 PM | Add more design to the prototype. | New look in the deck's emerald and gold colours: hero header with live numbers, a guided 3-step form with icons and example chips, a drag-and-drop area for the certificate file, status blocks with icons, a ring gauge for the market value score, point dots for each check, job cards with salary, and a phone layout. The checks themselves did not change. |
| 3 Oct, ~1:20 PM | The upload should have a size limit and accept more types, like PDF. | Upload now accepts PNG, JPG, WEBP and PDF, up to 5 MB; other types and bigger files are refused with a clear message. PDFs are scanned for a QR code on the first 3 pages and for clickable or printed links (pdf.js). 79 tests. Deck and notes updated to match. |
| 3 Oct, ~1:45 PM | What more can be added? | Listed ten possible additions with the effort for each (check any certificate, bulk / resume check, browse and compare, camera scan, validity check, more certificates, live job-ad counts, report download, Hindi / Marathi, report a fake). |
| 3 Oct, ~2:00 PM | Keep the current version unchanged, copy it, and add features 1, 4, 6 and 8. | Copied the app to a new folder (version 2); the original folder, GitHub repo and live site were not touched. Added: (1) a 3-question check for any certificate not in our list, (4) QR scanning with the phone camera, (6) 13 more certificates and 3 more verification methods, each fact checked on the official page, (8) a downloadable one-page PDF report with clickable proof links. 114 tests. |
| 3 Oct, ~4:30 PM | Looking at a winning SIH deck's tech stack: what is our stack, and what can we add later (for Round 2)? | Listed our stack layer by layer (built vs planned) and tested what a live check could use. Found that Credly, Coursera and edX answer differently for real and made-up certificate IDs, so a small API can ask the issuer directly. A first piece is in place (api/live.js, the /api/live route and helper functions) but it is not connected to the page yet. The Round 2 list is in Planned for Round 2. |
| 3 Oct, ~8:15 PM | Use the Round 2 copy and add the items from option B. | Added to this copy: (1) a live check with the issuer - the page asks our server, which asks Credly, Coursera or edX whether the certificate exists and reads the badge name, issuer and dates; (2) a text reader for certificates with no QR code; (3) tests on every push and a container file; (4) a "report a wrong fact" link. Tested against the real issuers with made-up and public IDs. 149 tests. The original was not touched. |
| 3 Oct, ~8:25 PM | Push it to GitHub. | Published this copy as its own repository, PersonalPurva/certwise-v2, so the original repository and its live site stay unchanged. The tests now run automatically on every push. |
| 3 Oct, ~8:40 PM | Deploy both the sites on the Purva9665 account. | Pushed both projects to the Purva9665 GitHub account as public repositories and switched on GitHub Pages for each. Original: purva9665.github.io/certwise (code: Purva9665/certwise). Version 2: purva9665.github.io/certwise-v2 (code: Purva9665/certwise-v2). Checked that every page and data file loads. The original's files were not changed. On GitHub Pages version 2 runs without the live check with the issuer, because that needs the server (npm start); everything else works. |
| 3 Oct, ~8:50 PM | Search more and dive deeper to find the links of the references, and stick to the problem statement. | Found 15 more references and read each one's exact words on its own page: official sources (UGC's list, a Rajya Sabha reply, DigiLocker NAD), large surveys (Pearson VUE with 23,714 candidates, Coursera's report with India numbers), two research papers on what online certificates are worth, and the open standards our genuineness check uses (Open Badges, W3C Verifiable Credentials). Sources that were real but not about certificates were left out, and so were numbers we could not find on the page. The full list is in Research. The slides have not been changed. |
| 5 Oct, ~3:30 AM | We are selected for Round 2 (one of 41 shortlisted teams). Create the GitHub repository the organisers asked for, in PersonalPurva. | Made this repository, PersonalPurva/certwise-v2 (public), match the organisers' list. Rewrote README.md with every section they asked for, in their order: problem statement, proposed solution, features, tech stack, installation and setup, how to run, project structure, screenshots, team members and future scope. Took nine real screenshots of the running prototype (docs/screenshots/), including the live check with the issuer and the text reader. Switched on GitHub Pages for this repository, so there is a live demo at personalpurva.github.io/certwise-v2 (without the live check, which needs the server). |
| 5 Oct, ~3:35 AM | Add my teammates' names in the team members section. | The Team Members section of README.md now lists all four of us: Srushti Chaudhari (team leader), Sneha Ghule, Purva Kadam and Tanishka Kadu. |
Research: is this a real problem?
Every number was checked on its source page. The exact words are in the "Proof" column.
| Finding | Proof (words on the page) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 96% of Indian students believe a certificate will help them get a job | "96% Indian students believe professional certification will land them a job: Coursera survey" | Careers360 |
| Employers value some certificates far more than others | "A 2026 survey of 200+ Indian hiring managers found that IIT/NPTEL certificates rank highest overall for employer recognition, ahead of Coursera certificates" | GradRight |
| 32 fake universities on UGC's list (Feb 2026) | "32 fake universities across India" - every name listed by state | Careers360 |
| 33% of misleading ads monitored by ASCI were from education | "As many as 33 per cent of 'objectionable or misleading' ads monitored as part of an Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) survey were found to be from the education sector" | ThePrint |
| A ₹10 AI course followed by a ₹14,000 upsell | "...enrolled for an AI course organized by two IIT graduates for Rs 10 and after finishing the session, they started upselling around Rs 14,000 for 4-5 months." | Storyboard18, Dec 2025 |
| Colleges must collect students' MOOC certificates as proof for NAAC | (summary, not a quote) NAAC metric 1.3.2 counts students who completed MOOCs (SWAYAM / NPTEL ...) and asks for completion certificates as evidence | College NAAC file (TCE) |
Key point: fake certificates are mostly an employer and university problem (forged degrees, fake universities). For students the bigger problem is value - a ₹9 workshop certificate is completely genuine but worth very little. So we check both.
More references for the problem statement (3 Oct, evening)
Problem statement: students can't easily check whether a certificate is genuine, or what it is worth in the job market. We searched again for stronger sources (official pages, large surveys, research papers) and kept only what fits this problem statement. Each page was downloaded and searched for the exact words.
A. "Is it genuine?" - fake certificates are a real, large problem in India
| What it proves | Proof (words on the page) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| UGC's own list has 32 fake universities | "State-wise list of Fake Universities as on February, 2026" - the table has 32 rows | UGC (official) |
| The Government confirmed it in Parliament | "has identified 32 fake universities across the country as per its latest list published in February 2026" (written reply in the Rajya Sabha) | ANI, 5 Aug 2026 |
| Fake certificates are made in bulk | "authorities recovered over one lakh counterfeit certificates bearing seals of various universities across India" · "charged between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh for each fake certificate" | Careers360, 10 Dec 2025 |
| Employers do find fake certificates when they check | "Education checks: 5% flagged discrepancies due to fake certificates or degrees from blacklisted institutions." (data from October 2024 to March 2025) | AuthBridge Workforce Fraud Files 2025 (the line is in Mediabrief and The Tribune) |
| Students are sold internship certificates | "pressure to secure internships has spawned a shady market in fake certificates. Companies have sprung up in Noida solely to issue internship certificates for a price." | The Wire, 27 Feb 2026 |
| Even an IIT had to warn students | IIT Roorkee "has issued a statement cautioning students and stakeholders against fraudulent internship and training programmes" | Careers360, 20 Mar 2026 |
B. "What is it worth?" - certificates do have market value, but not equal value
| What it proves | Proof (words on the page) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Certification pays, measured on a large sample | "Responses from 23,714 candidates in 150 countries are included in this report." · "32% of candidates received a salary increase after earning certification." · "In India, 32% had received job promotions at the time of the survey and 46% were hoping to." | Pearson VUE 2025 Value of IT Certification report (PDF) · press release |
| Employers pay more, and more for some certificates than others | "90% of employers are now willing to offer higher starting salaries—often 10–15% more—for candidates with micro-credentials" · "Most offer 10–15% more for credit-bearing vs. non-credit credentials" | Coursera blog, 29 Apr 2025 · report page |
| The same in India | "97% are willing to offer higher starting salaries to candidates who hold them" · "93% prefer hiring candidates with credit-bearing credentials over those without" · "1 in 3 Indian students have earned a micro-credential" | Coursera's India findings (CXOToday, 30 Apr 2025) |
| A certificate shown to employers leads to more jobs (randomised experiment) | "We conducted a randomized experiment with over 800,000 online certificate earners from developing countries who lack college degrees" · "The intervention increased new employment by 6% (1.0 percentage point), with larger effects of 9% (1.2 percentage points) for jobs related to certificates." | Athey and Palikot, arXiv:2405.00247 |
| An online course certificate helps, but is not worth the same as a degree (hiring experiment with made-up profiles) | "Respondents preferred all traditional degrees over a MOOC; MOOCs do not serve as substitutes for traditional postsecondary credentials." · "Results demonstrate a 61-percentage point preference for MOOC credentials compared to no MOOC credential" | Rivas, Baker and Evans, AERA Open, 2020 (abstract checked on ERIC) |
C. How checking works - the open standards our genuineness check uses
| What it proves | Proof (words on the page) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A badge can be verified at its own web address (this is what our live check with Credly does) | "Hosted badge Assertions that have an HTTP(s) id simply need to declare a verification type of HostedBadge, and verification will use the Assertion's id property." | Open Badges 2.0 specification, 12 April 2018 |
| The newest badge standard | "aligns with the conventions of the Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0" · "Open Badges are verifiable and shareable digital credentials" | Open Badges 3.0 specification · 1EdTech, 29 May 2024 |
| The web standard for tamper-proof certificates | "W3C Recommendation 15 May 2025" · "A verifiable credential is a specific way to express a set of claims made by an issuer, such as a driver's license or an education certificate." | W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 |
| What the Government's depository checks (genuineness of academic awards; it gives no market value) | "Allows Employers and other persons (with consent of the concerned Student) to verify the authenticity of any Academic Award" | DigiLocker National Academic Depository |
Checked and left out: "fake certificates given to over 10 lakh people from 22 universities" (Kerala case) - those numbers were not on the page we checked, so we only say "over one lakh certificates recovered". "28% of job applicants submit fake degrees" (AuthBridge, 2020) - old, and it is a share of education discrepancies, not of applicants. The ASCI annual report 2024-25, the Ministry of Education's ed-tech advisory (2021), the CCPA coaching-advertisement guidelines (2024) and the India Skills Report 2026 are real sources, but they are about advertisements, coaching or employability rather than certificates, so they do not fit this problem statement. The official SIH page for SIH25029 could not be opened, so that reference stays as SIH Navigator.
Does a "genuine + market value" platform already exist?
1. Checking if a certificate is genuine - exists, and crowded
| Existing | What it does | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| DigiLocker - National Academic Depository | Government store of degrees and mark sheets; employers verify with the student's permission | Degrees only; no market value |
| NCVET National Qualifications Register | Official record of NSQF-aligned qualifications | Vocational qualifications only |
| University portals, iCredify, SpringVerify | Verify degrees for employers | Paid / employer-only; no value |
| CertForge | Bulk NPTEL certificate checks by QR, for colleges | NPTEL only; no market value |
| SEEK Pass, Reclaim Protocol | Verified credential wallet (Australia); cryptographic proofs of Udemy / HackerRank achievements | Not for Indian students; no value score |
| TrueDoc | AI "trust score" for any uploaded document (forgery signs) | Generic documents; can't confirm with the issuer; no value |
| TrueCred, LegitDoc, Certopus, CertifyMe | Issue new tamper-proof certificates with QR / blockchain | Only work for certificates they issue |
| SIH 2025 - SIH25029 "Authenticity Validator for Academia" | 142 team submissions - OCR, AI forgery detection, blockchain | Genuineness only |
2. Scoring a certificate's market value - only pieces exist
| Existing | What it does | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Credly Labor Market Insights | Job postings, salary ranges and employers for a badge's skills | Credly badges only; mainly U.S. data; no score or verdict |
| CrucialExams Certification Salary Estimator | Salary for jobs asking for an IT certification | "only provides salary estimates in the USA"; no verdict |
| Payscale, ROI calculators | Pay / salary-uplift by certification | U.S. / foreign data; for professionals |
| College Vidya "worth it" pages | Says a course is worth it | Promotional; earns through admissions - not independent |
3. Result
- Genuine + market value, for any issuer, for Indian students, in one place: not found. The closest is Credly (verified badge + job data), but only for its own badges, with mostly U.S. data and no score.
- Genuineness on its own is crowded (142 SIH teams, government systems, paid verification companies) - so our edge is the combination, any issuer (no partnership needed) and proof for every fact.
Limits: "not found" means our searches of the web, SIH lists, Devpost / Devfolio, GitHub and the Play Store didn't turn it up.
How each issuer lets anyone verify a certificate
This is the data behind the genuineness check (data/verify.js). Each line was checked on the issuer's page.
| Issuer(s) | Official way to verify |
|---|---|
| AWS, Cisco (incl. Networking Academy), HashiCorp | Credly badge link - AWS · Cisco |
| Google Cloud | Credly (older certificates on Accredible) - Google |
| Microsoft (AZ-900, AZ-104, PL-300) | Microsoft Learn share link - Microsoft Learn |
| Coursera (Google, Meta, DeepLearning.AI certificates) | coursera.org/verify/CODE on every certificate - Coursera |
| NPTEL | QR code on the certificate opens it on nptel.ac.in - sample certificates |
| Red Hat | Certificate number 123-456-789 at rhtapps.redhat.com/verify |
| CompTIA | Verification code at verify.comptia.org |
| ISC2 (CC, CISSP) | Last name + member ID at ISC2 member verification |
| EC-Council (CEH) | ASPEN verify |
| Linux Foundation (CKA) | Linux Foundation verify or Credly |
| Oracle | Holder publishes it from CertView, or shares the Credly badge - Oracle |
| Udemy | Certificate link printed on the certificate (ude.my or udemy.com) - Udemy |
| edX | Certificate link (courses.edx.org/certificates/ID) - edX |
| Internshala Trainings | Certificate number at Internshala's certificate verification page |
| GitHub (Foundations) | Credly badge - GitHub |
| LinkedIn Learning, Great Learning, TCS iON, Forage, Simplilearn | No public verification page found - shown as "No public check found" |
| HackerRank, Kaggle, freeCodeCamp | Public certificate links: hackerrank.com/certificates/..., kaggle.com/learn/certification/..., freecodecamp.org/certification/... |
| Paid workshops, participation certificates, paid "internships" | No official record - shown as "Can't be verified" |
What we built
Input
- Certificate name (typos are fine - edit distance, Levenshtein, dynamic programming).
- Verification link or certificate ID - or the certificate file: PNG, JPG, WEBP or PDF, up to 5 MB. Images are scanned for a QR code (jsQR); PDFs for a QR code on the first 3 pages and for clickable or printed links (pdf.js). Other file types and bigger files are refused with a clear message. Everything runs in the browser - the file is never uploaded.
- Or scan the QR code with the camera (best on a phone): the back camera opens, a frame is checked four times a second, and the camera switches off as soon as a code is found.
- Optional: the college / institute that issued it.
- Not in our list? Three quick questions - who issued it, how it was earned, does it have a verification link or ID - and the same score is worked out from the answers, clearly marked as based on the user's answers.
- Download report: every result can be saved as a one-page PDF with clickable proof links.
Answer 1 - Is it genuine?
- Official verification link - the link is on the issuer's own verification site (domain + path checked).
- Look-alike website - the link copies the issuer's name or is a small typo of it (coursera-verify.com, credlly.com).
- ID looks right / doesn't match the format - e.g. Red Hat 123-456-789, then the official page to confirm.
- Can't be verified - certificate types with no official record.
- Fake university - issuer matched against UGC's list of 32 (typos allowed).
- We never say "100% genuine" - the last step is always the issuer's own page, linked with one button.
Answer 2 - What is it worth?
| Check | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recognition (who gives it) | Company / body that owns the field, or an IIT | Learning platform | Unknown training company |
| Proof of skill (how you earn it) | Supervised exam | Online tests / projects | Attendance, or only finishing the videos / tasks |
| Job demand | Verified sources, or its jobs are "in demand" in cited reports | One source / IT under pressure / depends on course | Not a credential employers ask for |
70%+ High · 45-69% Medium · below 45% Low. Also shown: price (with proof), fresher salary of the jobs it leads to (with sources), warnings (exam closed, needs work experience) and higher-value certificates in the same field. If the certificate looks fake, its market value is 0%.
Keeping prices, salaries and demand current - without fake information
| Free mode (Gemini key) | Paid mode (Claude key) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where facts come from | Our script downloads the trusted pages listed in our data; Gemini copies out the facts | Claude searches the web and reads pages |
| Fact check | The same in both: refresh/verify.js keeps a fact only if its exact quote is on the page and every number is inside the quote. | |
| Cost | ₹0 | Pay per use |
A GitHub Actions job runs it on the 1st of every month. It needs one repository secret - GEMINI_API_KEY (free) or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. Until then the app uses hand-checked facts, each with a proof link.
Testing
- 114 automated tests (
npm test): the 13 new certificates and 3 new verification methods, the 3-question check for unlisted certificates, plus search and typos, every genuineness result (official link, wrong page, look-alike, typo domain, wrong issuer, ID formats, no record, fake university with typos, real university not flagged), the upload rules (allowed types, 5 MB limit, empty file), choosing the right link inside a PDF, market value scores, higher-value picks, the fact checker and the free-refresh helpers. - Browser checks of all five examples at laptop and phone widths, with no console errors.
- Upload checks with sample files in
tests/: a PNG with a QR code, a PDF with a QR code and a PDF with only a printed link all gave "Official verification link"; a 6 MB file, a .docx file and a damaged PDF were each refused with the right message. - 149 tests now, including the live check with a pretend issuer (so tests never touch the real websites) and the text reader.
- Live check against the real issuers: made-up IDs on Credly, Coursera and edX gave "No record at the issuer"; a public Credly badge gave "Confirmed by the issuer" with its name, issuer and date; the same badge checked against a different certificate gave "Real, but a different certificate".
- Text reader: a sample certificate image with no QR code was read in a few seconds; the name and link were filled in and the check ran.
- Fixed: Credly sent a web page instead of the badge record until we asked for the record only; an unreadable answer now never counts as "confirmed".
- Version 2 checks in the browser: the 3-question check, a PDF report for four kinds of result (read back to confirm its text and clickable links), and the camera scanner with a simulated camera showing a sample QR code. The camera still needs a try on a real phone.
- Fixed in version 2: typing "AI-900" found "AZ-900" (a one-letter typo counted the same as an exact match) - exact matches now rank higher; long proof links were cut off in the PDF report - they now show the name and website.
- Fixed while testing: "Commercial University Ltd." wasn't matched because of the full stop; a fake certificate showed a high market value - it now shows 0% if fake; PDF pages didn't finish drawing when the browser tab was in the background - the page is now drawn in one go, with a 6-second limit.
- The deck passed file validation and every slide was checked as an image.
Round 1 presentation
- 6 slides in the organisers' template, SIH-deck style: Title · Idea · Technical approach · Feasibility · Impact · Research and references.
- Every number has a reference [1]-[9]; the proof table with the exact source words is in the slide notes file.
Tech used
HTML, CSS, JavaScript (no framework, no backend) · jsQR for reading QR codes, pdf.js for reading PDFs, Tesseract.js for reading printed text and jsPDF for writing the report, all in the browser · a small Node.js API for the live check (Open Badges records from Credly) · the camera through getUserMedia · Node.js for tests and the refresh script · Gemini (free) or Claude API for the monthly refresh · GitHub Actions · GitHub Pages (₹0 server cost).
Round 2 plan (we were selected)
| What | What it adds | Tech | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live check with the issuer | Asks Credly / Coursera / edX whether the certificate exists; shows the badge name, issuer and dates; catches a made-up ID on a real site | Node.js API, Open Badges records | Built in this copy (needs the server: npm start) |
| Read the text on a certificate (OCR) | Works when there is no QR code: finds the name, link or ID printed on the image | Tesseract.js | Built in this copy |
| Bulk / resume check | Placement cells check many certificates at once | pdf.js text reading, table export | Planned |
| Browse and compare | All certificates by field, sorted by market value | JavaScript | Planned |
| First real data refresh | Live, quote-checked prices and salaries on the page | Gemini API (free key) | Built - needs the key |
| Tests on every push, container | Shows an engineering process | GitHub Actions, Docker | Written - the container is untested (Docker was not running) |
| Publish version 2 with the API | The live check works online, not just on our laptop | Render or Railway (free tier) | Planned |
What's next
- Round 2: submit the repository link (github.com/PersonalPurva/certwise-v2) on Unstop. The organisers will send the submission document format separately.
- Add a free Gemini key as the
GEMINI_API_KEYrepository secret and run a small test refresh. - Record a 60-90 second backup video of the demo for Round 2 (5 Oct).
- Try the camera scanner on a real phone.
- Host the server (for example on Render or Railway) so the live check works online, then decide whether version 2 replaces the original.
- Later: a bulk / resume check for placement cells; browse and compare; validity (expiry) check.