CUET-UG aspirants face glitches, server errors, delays on exam day

Ahead of the exam, centres put up notices announcing the delay, leading to delayed entry of students inside the centres

Published on: May 27, 2025, 12:20:42 IST

By Arun Kumar, Sanjay Maurya, Patna/New Delhi

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Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET UG) centres across the country on Monday saw aspirants and parents lined up outside the gates as the exam faced delays of up to an hour due to technical glitches and server errors.

Candidates search for seat arrangements as they arrive to appear for the CUET-UG) 2025 exam. (ANI photo)

The first shift of CUET-UG was scheduled to begin at 9am. Ahead of the exam, centres put up notices announcing the delay, leading to delayed entry of students inside the centres.

“Due to some technical glitches there will be an undefined delay in entry. Once the issue is resolved, all candidates will be permitted to enter. It’s a pan-India issue. Your cooperation is highly essential,” the notices said.

Rana Pratap Singh, parent of a CUET aspirant, said that a large crowd of restless parents and students gathered at the Pataliputra centre in Patna before 7am, as they heard of technical glitch. “But later, everything settled as the problem was sorted out,” he added.

Another parent, Neelam Kumari, said that she, along with her daughter, reached the CUET exam centre, Ion Digital Zone in Azara, Guwahati at 7.45am. However, students were not allowed to enter the exam centre until 9.30am. “The security guard at 9.15am announced that the reason behind the delay was a technical glitch. However, at 9.30am, students were allowed to enter the exam centre to sit for the exam.”

While officials from the National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam, did not respond to HT’s requests for comments, a person managing one of the exam centres said that the hour-long delay was caused due to technical errors in NTA servers.

“There was no problem in the exam process except the entry in the exam hall,” Suryoday Singh, owner of AIIT and management college in Prayagraj, which holds the exam, said.

An observer, an individual appointed by the NTA to oversee the fair and smooth conduct of the exam at a test center, for the CUET-UG in Bihar said that there was some pan-India technical issue, but it was resolved well in time.

“The exams are from May 13 to June 6, and due to a delay in the morning, the students were concerned, but it was resolved,” said the official, who did not want to be quoted.

CUET UG 2025 will be conducted by NTA till June 3 in computer-based mode. The exam is being held in three shifts daily: 9-10am, 12-1pm, and 3-4pm, covering 37 subjects including 13 languages, 23 domain-specific subjects, and one general test. The test is available in 13 languages and is a key requirement for undergraduate admissions in central, state, and participating universities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Arun Kumar
Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues.Read More
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanjay Maurya
Sanjay Maurya is a Principal Correspondent with Hindustan Times, where he covers education, with a focus on school and higher education, competitive examinations, education policy and governance. Working as part of the National Bureau, he is based in New Delhi and reports on the Ministry of Education and covers various statutory bodies like UGC, AICTE and NCTE and autonomous bodies like CBSE and NCERT. His reporting also tracks the implementation of key government reforms and policies from school education to higher education including in IITs, NITs, IIMs, central and state universities, and their impact on students and educational institutions. His reporting on the irregularities and rushed implementation of CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class 12 board exams 2026, triggered administrative action, leading to the transfer of the board's two senior-most officials and the constitution of a committee to probe alleged irregularities in procurement process of the system. He joined Hindustan Times in December 2024. Prior to that, he had a three-year stint at Careers360, where he reported on school and higher education, entrance examinations, admissions, rankings and various education policies involving universities and professional education bodies. Over the years, Maurya has reported extensively on major developments in India's education sector, including the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, reforms in the National Testing Agency (NTA) following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, changes in school education, higher education regulation, and the evolution of entrance examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET. He regularly produces data-driven and explanatory stories based on government documents, parliamentary proceedings, court records and official data. His focus remains on helping readers understand how education policies and institutional decisions affect millions of students, teachers and educational institutions across the country.Read More

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