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. |
| Live app | Open CertWise · Code: github.com/PersonalPurva/certwise |
| Rounds | Round 1 - idea + 6-slide PPT, due 3 Oct 2026, 11:59 PM · Round 2 - prototype + GitHub + 10-minute demo, 5 Oct · Round 3 - 5-hour build at PCCOE, 9 Oct |
| Status | Live on GitHub Pages · 31 certificates · 14 official verification methods · UGC fake-university list · certificate upload (image or PDF, 5 MB limit) · 79 automated tests passing · Round 1 deck ready · 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. |
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.
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 |
| 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.
- Optional: the college / institute that issued it.
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 |
| 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
- 79 automated tests (
npm test): 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. - 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 and pdf.js for reading PDFs, both in the browser · Node.js for tests and the refresh script · Gemini (free) or Claude API for the monthly refresh · GitHub Actions · GitHub Pages (₹0 server cost).
What's next
- Fill in our own survey numbers on slide 5 and submit Round 1 (3 Oct, 11:59 PM).
- 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).
- Later: more issuers and certificates; a bulk check for placement cells.