Full-Stack Online Examination System with PHP & MySQL — Complete Guide

Project Overview

This project is a complete Online Examination System that allows institutions, coaching centres, and educators to create and conduct exams online. Students can register, browse available exams, attempt them in a secure proctored environment, and view instant results.

Why this project?

Most open-source exam systems are either too heavy (WordPress plugins, Laravel monoliths) or too minimal. This system hits the sweet spot — it's lightweight, self-contained, easy to deploy, and feature-complete enough for real-world use.

Who is it for?

Live Demo Features

🌐 Public Homepage (/)

• Lists all published exams with live status indicators
• Registration and login CTAs
• Exam details: duration, marks, pass criteria, negative marking info
• Smart buttons based on user role and exam status (Live / Upcoming / Ended)

🛡️ Admin Panel (/admin/dashboard)

• Dashboard — Stats overview (total exams, users, submissions, pass rate, avg score, integrity flags)
• Exams Module — Card grid view with live badge, pass rate, attempt count; search & status filter
• Questions Module — Add MCQ questions with dynamic options (2–∞), image upload per question, AJAX pagination & search, bulk CSV import
• Students Module — View all registered students with exam activity stats, status toggle, profile modal with exam history
• Results Module — Pass/Fail donut chart, score distribution bar chart, filters by exam/result/name, answer review modal per attempt
• Users Module — Manage all roles (Admin / Examiner / Student), create/edit/delete users, role-based colour themes

🎓 Student Portal (/student/dashboard)

• Browse available exams
• Fullscreen exam engine with auto-save answers
• Tab-switch violation detection & logging
• Timer with auto-submit
• Instant result page with score breakdown

Tech Stack

Project Architecture

Online Examination System/
├── index.php                    # Front controller & router
├── database.sql                 # Complete DB schema + seed data
├── README.md
│
├── app/
│   ├── Config/
│   │   └── Database.php         # PDO connection config
│   │
│   ├── Controllers/
│   │   ├── HomeController.php   # Public homepage
│   │   ├── AuthController.php   # Login / Register / Logout
│   │   ├── AdminController.php  # All admin operations (CRUD)
│   │   └── StudentController.php# Exam engine, results
│   │
│   ├── Models/
│   │   ├── User.php             # User CRUD, stats, role management
│   │   ├── Exam.php             # Exam CRUD with aggregated stats
│   │   ├── Question.php         # MCQ CRUD with options, image
│   │   └── Attempt.php          # Exam attempts, scoring, evaluation
│   │
│   ├── Views/
│   │   ├── home.php             # Public landing page
│   │   ├── layouts/
│   │   │   └── admin.php        # Admin shell layout + sidebar
│   │   ├── auth/
│   │   │   ├── login.php
│   │   │   └── register.php
│   │   ├── admin/
│   │   │   ├── dashboard.php
│   │   │   ├── exams/           # index, create, edit, questions, question_edit
│   │   │   ├── students/        # index, edit
│   │   │   ├── results/         # index
│   │   │   └── users/           # index, create, edit
│   │   └── student/             # dashboard, exam views, result
│   │
│   └── Helpers/
│       └── AuthHelper.php       # Session-based role guard
│
└── public/
    └── uploads/
        └── questions/           # Uploaded question images

MVC Request Lifecycle

Browser Request
      │
      ▼
  index.php  ──── parses URI ────► Router (switch/case)
      │
      ▼
  Controller  ──── calls Model ──► Database (PDO)
      │                                  │
      │         ◄─── data ───────────────┘
      ▼
   View (PHP template)
      │
      ▼
  HTML Response

Database Schema

The system uses 5 core tables with foreign key constraints and ON DELETE CASCADE for data integrity.

-- Users table (all roles) CREATE TABLE users ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL, email VARCHAR(150) UNIQUE NOT NULL, password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, -- bcrypt hashed role ENUM('admin','examiner','student') DEFAULT 'student', city VARCHAR(100), status ENUM('active','inactive') DEFAULT 'active', created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ); -- Exams table CREATE TABLE exams ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, description TEXT, duration_minutes INT NOT NULL, start_time DATETIME NOT NULL, end_time DATETIME NOT NULL, total_marks DECIMAL(8,2) DEFAULT 100, passing_marks DECIMAL(8,2) DEFAULT 40, negative_marking_ratio DECIMAL(4,2) DEFAULT 0, status ENUM('draft','published','completed') DEFAULT 'draft', created_by INT, created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, FOREIGN KEY (created_by) REFERENCES users(id) ); -- Questions table CREATE TABLE questions ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, exam_id INT NOT NULL, question_text TEXT NOT NULL, image_url VARCHAR(500), -- optional image per question marks DECIMAL(5,2) DEFAULT 1.00, created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, FOREIGN KEY (exam_id) REFERENCES exams(id) ON DELETE CASCADE ); -- Options table (MCQ choices) CREATE TABLE options ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, question_id INT NOT NULL, option_text VARCHAR(500) NOT NULL, is_correct TINYINT(1) DEFAULT 0, FOREIGN KEY (question_id) REFERENCES questions(id) ON DELETE CASCADE ); -- Exam Attempts table CREATE TABLE exam_attempts ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, user_id INT NOT NULL, exam_id INT NOT NULL, start_time DATETIME, end_time DATETIME, score DECIMAL(8,2), status ENUM('in_progress','submitted','evaluated') DEFAULT 'in_progress', tab_switches INT DEFAULT 0, -- proctoring violations FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id), FOREIGN KEY (exam_id) REFERENCES exams(id) ON DELETE CASCADE ); -- Student Answers table CREATE TABLE student_answers ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, attempt_id INT NOT NULL, question_id INT NOT NULL, selected_option_id INT, marks_obtained DECIMAL(5,2) DEFAULT 0, FOREIGN KEY (attempt_id) REFERENCES exam_attempts(id) ON DELETE CASCADE );

Module Breakdown

1. Authentication System

• Session-based login/logout
• bcrypt password hashing
• Role-based access guard (AuthHelper::requireRole())
• Duplicate email check on registration

2. Exam Management

• Create, Edit, Delete exams with draft/published/completed states
• Set duration, marks, passing marks, negative marking ratio, start/end times
• Real-time LIVE badge when exam is currently active
• View question count, attempt count, pass rate per exam

3. Question Management

• Add MCQ questions with 2 to unlimited options (dynamic JS)
• Upload an image per question (PNG/JPG/GIF)
• Bulk import via CSV — import hundreds of questions at once
• Download sample CSV template
• AJAX-powered question list with pagination and live search
• Edit/Delete individual questions

4. Student Management

• View all registered students with exam activity data
• Toggle student status (Active/Inactive) via AJAX
• Student profile modal showing exam history, avg score, violation count
• Edit student details and reset password

5. Results & Analytics

• Pass/Fail donut chart + score distribution bar chart (Chart.js)
• Filter results by exam, result (pass/fail), student name
• Per-attempt Answer Review Modal — see every question with student's answer vs correct answer
• Integrity flag count per attempt

6. User Management

• Full CRUD for all user roles: Admin, Examiner, Student
• Role-colored profile pages (purple=admin, green=student, amber=examiner)
• Cannot delete the last active admin (safety guard)
• Toggle status AJAX (live badge update without page reload)

7. Exam Engine (Student Side)

• Fullscreen enforcement on exam start
• Auto-save answers via AJAX on every selection
• Tab-switch / focus-loss detection → violation logged to DB
• Countdown timer with auto-submit when time expires
• Instant result page with score, correct/incorrect breakdown, pass/fail verdict

Installation & Local Setup

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/online-examination-system.git
cd online-examination-system

Step 2 — Create the Database

mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE exam_system CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
EXIT;

mysql -u root -p exam_system < database.sql

Step 3 — Configure Database Connection

Open app/Config/Database.php and update:

private $host     = 'localhost';
private $db_name  = 'exam_system';       // your DB name
private $username = 'root';              // your MySQL user
private $password = '';                  // your MySQL password

Step 4 — Create Upload Directory

mkdir -p public/uploads/questions
chmod 755 public/uploads/questions

Step 5 — Start the Development Server

php -S localhost:8000

Open your browser → http://localhost:8000

Deployment Guide

Option 1: Shared Hosting (cPanel)

This is the easiest option — suitable for beginners.

Step 1 — Prepare your files

# Zip your project folder
zip -r exam-system.zip "Online Examination System/"

Step 2 — Upload via File Manager

1. Log in to cPanel
2. Open File Manager → navigate to public_html/
3. Upload and extract exam-system.zip
4. Move the contents so index.php is directly inside public_html/

Step 3 — Create MySQL Database in cPanel

1. Go to MySQL Databases
2. Create a new database, e.g., youruser_examdb
3. Create a MySQL user with a strong password
4. Grant ALL privileges to the user on that database

Step 4 — Import the SQL Schema

1. Open phpMyAdmin
2. Select your database
3. Click Import tab → choose database.sql → click Go

Step 5 — Update Database Config

Edit app/Config/Database.php with your cPanel DB credentials:

private $host     = 'localhost';
private $db_name  = 'youruser_examdb';
private $username = 'youruser_dbuser';
private $password = 'your_strong_password';

Step 6 — Set up .htaccess (Apache)

Create or verify public_html/.htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]

Step 7 — Set folder permissions

public/uploads/questions/   →  755
app/                        →  644 (files), 755 (dirs)

✅ Visit your domain — the homepage should load!

Configuration Reference

app/Config/Database.php

private $host     = 'localhost';    // DB host
private $db_name  = 'exam_system';  // DB name
private $username = 'root';         // DB user
private $password = '';             // DB password
private $charset  = 'utf8mb4';      // Always use utf8mb4

File Upload Config

Image uploads are stored in:

public/uploads/questions/

Supported formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP
Maximum size: Controlled by your php.ini:

upload_max_filesize = 10M
post_max_size = 12M 

CSV Question Import Format

To bulk-import questions, use the following CSV format:

question_text,marks,option_a,option_b,option_c,option_d,correct_option
What is the capital of France?,1,Berlin,Paris,Rome,Madrid,B
Which planet is closest to the sun?,2,Earth,Venus,Mercury,Mars,C
True or False: Water is H2O.,1,True,False,,,A
PHP stands for?,1,Personal Home Page,Hypertext Preprocessor,Public Homepage Protocol,Private Handle Protocol,B

Rules:

• First row is the header — always keep it, it will be skipped
• correct_option must be A, B, C, or D
• option_c and option_d can be empty (for True/False questions)
• marks defaults to 1.0 if left empty or invalid
• Blank question rows are silently skipped

📥 Download the sample CSV template from Admin → Questions → Import CSV → Download Sample CSV.

Default Credentials

After importing database.sql, use these credentials to log in:

⚠️ Security Warning: Change the default admin password immediately after first login in production.

Author

Built with ❤️ by Lavkush K.

• 🎬 YouTube: CodingCush
• 🐙 GitHub: CodingCush

If this project helped you, please ⭐ star the repository and subscribe to the YouTube channel for more full-stack PHP tutorials!