Online proctoring is the set of checks that let you deliver an exam remotely while still being able to prove that the right person sat it, and that they sat it fairly. It does the job an in-room invigilator used to do, verifying who is in the seat, watching the conditions, and flagging anything unusual, only it does it through the candidate's own device.

Here is what actually happens, step by step.

1. Identity verification, before the exam starts

Before a single question loads, the candidate proves who they are. Typically that means capturing a photo of a government ID and a photo of the candidate, then checking that the two faces match. This is the step that stops the most basic form of cheating: someone else sitting the exam in the candidate's place.

2. Locking down the environment

Once the exam begins, the point is to make the on-screen environment behave like a supervised room. Depending on how strict the sitting needs to be, that can include:

  • Screen lock and lockdown mode, so the candidate cannot open other applications or browse away.
  • Tab-switch detection, which notices if the candidate leaves the exam window.
  • Copy-paste detection, which flags attempts to lift the question text out or paste an answer in.
  • Second-screen detection, which looks for signals that a second monitor is in use.

None of these are about catching people for its own sake. They are about removing the easy routes, so the result reflects what the candidate actually knows.

3. Monitoring and recording the session

Throughout the sitting, the session is monitored and recorded. This is where the two broad styles of proctoring differ:

  • Live proctoring has a human invigilator watching in real time, exactly like a physical exam hall, just remote.
  • AI proctoring uses automated monitoring to watch for unusual behaviour and flag moments for review, without a person watching every candidate live.

Many platforms, CandidatesPrep among them, support both, because they suit different stakes. A high-value licensing exam might justify live proctoring; a large-volume knowledge check is better served by AI monitoring with human review of the flags.

4. Review, the part that actually matters

This is the step people underestimate. Proctoring's real value is not the detection in the moment. It is that a flag is not a verdict. It is evidence attached to a timestamp.

When a session is recorded and its unusual moments are flagged, nothing is silently trusted and nothing is silently rejected. A human reviews the flags afterwards and decides. And crucially, when a candidate or a board later challenges the outcome, the recording and the flag log are already on file.

That is what makes a remote result defensible. Without it, a contested pass or fail comes down to one person's word against another's. With it, the challenge becomes a review of the record.

What proctoring is not

It is worth being honest about the limits, because overselling proctoring erodes trust.

Proctoring does not read minds, and no system catches everything. Its job is to raise the cost and lower the ease of cheating to the point where the result is trustworthy and, if questioned, provable. It is a deterrent plus an evidence trail, not a lie detector.

It also should not be needlessly invasive. Good proctoring collects what it needs to establish integrity and no more, and it is transparent with candidates about what is being recorded and why. A candidate who understands the process going in is far less likely to be alarmed by it.

Do candidates need to install anything?

On some platforms, yes: a separate lockdown browser or desktop client, which is usually the single biggest source of support tickets on exam day. On others, including CandidatesPrep, the exam runs in a standard web browser with no install required, which removes most of that friction.

The short version

Online proctoring works by verifying identity up front, constraining the exam environment, monitoring and recording the sitting, and, most importantly, leaving a reviewable evidence trail behind. Get that last part right and remote exams become as defensible as anything run in a hall.

If you want to see the trainer's side of this, how sessions are recorded and flags are reviewed, walk through the CandidatesPrep trainer console, or read the difference between a proctored and an unproctored sitting.