Online Examination System - Full-Stack PHP & MySQL - Free Source Code

What is this project?

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.

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

Who is it for?

Audience	Use Case
Educators & Schools	Conduct class tests and final exams online
Coaching Institutes	Create mock exams and track student performance
HR Departments	Screening tests for job applicants
Developers	Learn MVC architecture with pure PHP
YouTubers / Bloggers	Build & showcase as a portfolio project

FEATURES - What's included

The system ships with three distinct portals and a full admin & student toolset.

Public Homepage

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

Admin Panel

Dashboard with stats overview (total exams, users, submissions, pass rate, avg score)
Exam management: card grid view with live badge, pass rate, attempt count
Question management: add MCQ with dynamic options, image upload, bulk CSV import, AJAX pagination
Student management: view all students, toggle status, profile modal with exam history
Results analytics: pass/fail donut chart, score distribution bar chart, answer review modal
User management: full CRUD for all roles with role-coloured badges

Student Portal

Browse available exams and start with fullscreen enforcement
Auto-save answers via AJAX on every selection
Tab-switch and focus-loss detection — violations logged to database
Countdown timer with auto-submit when time expires
Instant result page with score, correct/incorrect breakdown, pass/fail verdict

Tech stack

Layer	Technology	Notes
Backend Language	PHP 8.1+	No framework required
Architecture	Custom MVC	Pure PHP, front controller pattern
Database	MySQL 8.0+	PDO with prepared statements
Frontend	Bootstrap 5.3 + Vanilla JS	Responsive, no build step
Charts	Chart.js 4.4	Pass/fail donut + score distribution
Icons	Bootstrap Icons 1.11	Icon font, no SVG bloat
Fonts	Google Fonts — Inter	Clean, readable body font
Production	Apache / Nginx	Dev: PHP built-in server

Project architecture

The project uses a custom MVC pattern with a single front controller (index.php) that routes requests to the appropriate controller.

Online Examination System/
├── index.php                    # Front controller & router
├── database.sql                 # Complete DB schema + seed data
│
├── app/
│   ├── Config/Database.php      # PDO connection config
│   ├── Controllers/
│   │   ├── HomeController.php   # Public homepage
│   │   ├── AuthController.php   # Login / Register / Logout
│   │   ├── AdminController.php  # All admin operations
│   │   └── StudentController.php# Exam engine, results
│   ├── Models/
│   │   ├── User.php  Exam.php  Question.php  Attempt.php
│   ├── Views/
│   │   ├── home.php  layouts/  auth/  admin/  student/
│   └── Helpers/AuthHelper.php   # Session-based role guard
│
└── public/uploads/questions/    # Uploaded question images

Database: Schema — 5 core tables

All tables use foreign key constraints and ON DELETE CASCADE for data integrity.

Table	Key Columns	Purpose
users	id, name, email, password, role, status	All roles in one table
exams	id, title, duration, start_time, end_time, passing_marks	Exam configuration & scheduling
questions	id, exam_id, question_text, image_url, marks	MCQ questions with optional image
options	id, question_id, option_text, is_correct	MCQ choices with correct-answer flag
exam_attempts	id, user_id, exam_id, score, status, tab_switches	Attempts + proctoring data
student_answers	id, attempt_id, question_id, selected_option_id, marks_obtained	Per-answer scoring for review

Module breakdown

1. Authentication System

Session-based login / logout
bcrypt password hashing
Role-based access guard via 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

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
AJAX-powered question list with pagination and live search

4. 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

DEPLOYMENT: Three ways to deploy

Option	Difficulty	Description
Shared Hosting (cPanel)	Easiest	Upload via File Manager, create MySQL DB in cPanel, import SQL via phpMyAdmin, add .htaccess rewrite rule.
VPS / Ubuntu Server	Recommended	Apache + MySQL + PHP 8.1 stack. Configure a virtual host, enable mod_rewrite, add SSL via Let's Encrypt.
Docker	Dev-friendly	Use the included docker-compose.yml — PHP-Apache + MySQL 8 with schema auto-imported on first start.

CSV question import format

Bulk-import hundreds of questions with a single CSV file. Download the sample template from Admin > Questions > Import CSV.

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,...,B

Rules

First row is the header and is always 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

ACCESS: Default credentials

Role	Email	Password
Admin	admin@example.com	password
Student	Register via the public homepage	—

Warning: Change the default admin password immediately after first login in any production environment.

What's done & what's next

Completed

[x] MVC architecture with custom router
[x] Role-based authentication (Admin / Examiner / Student)
[x] Full exam CRUD with draft / published / completed states
[x] MCQ questions with dynamic options (2 to unlimited)
[x] Bulk CSV question import
[x] Real-time exam engine with AJAX auto-save
[x] Tab-switch proctoring & violation logging
[x] Results analytics with Chart.js charts
[x] Per-attempt answer review modal

Planned

[ ] Email notifications (exam reminders, result emails)
[ ] Exportable result reports (PDF / Excel)
[ ] Question bank with tag-based pools
[ ] Randomised question order per student
[ ] Multi-language support
[ ] REST API for mobile app integration