# Quiz certificates that can be checked by code: how to issue one

**How do I issue a quiz certificate that anyone can check by its code?** A quiz certificate that can be checked by code states who sat the test, what was tested, the score against a pass mark set beforehand, the date and who issued it, and carries a code that anyone can look up in the issuer's record. It records a result on that test. It is never a licence, a qualification or a grade.

Published 2026-10-10 by EdProcto. https://edprocto.com/guides/quiz-certificates-that-can-be-checked-by-code

A certificate for passing a quiz is easy to make and as easy to fake: a name, a title and a date on a page that any word processor can copy. What gives a quiz certificate its worth is a code that leads back to the issuer's own record, where a stranger can see whether that name, that test and that score are really there.

EdProcto, which publishes this guide, issues a certificate of this kind and answers the check at a public address; its page [for trainers](https://edprocto.com/solutions/trainers) gives the wider picture. This guide walks through one certificate from both sides: issuing it, and checking it by its code.

## Why does a quiz certificate need a code that can be checked?

A quiz certificate needs a code because, with no route back to the issuer's record, it proves only that somebody owns a printer. The bodies that deal with forged and unearned certificates give one piece of advice: check the record, not the paper.

### What public bodies say about fake certificates

Ofqual (2024), which regulates qualifications in England, opens its action plan against qualification fraud from the reader's side: an employer should be able to trust that a certificate shows its holder did the training and showed the competence. Three cases show what goes wrong.

- **A forged document.** Ofqual (2015) reported the sentencing of a man who sold fake certificates for qualifications online, with the regulator's and the exam boards' logos added to make them look genuine.
- **A real card on a false test.** The Construction Skills Certification Scheme (2016) reported 4,615 site cards revoked after investigations into fraud at five test centres, and urged employers to check every card electronically.
- **A claim nobody checked.** Prospects (2019), which runs the UK's degree verification service, surveyed 313 employers: 49% of large businesses and 48% of smaller ones had met a candidate who lied about a degree, yet a fifth did not verify degrees.

A construction survey reported by Ofqual and the Construction Industry Training Board (2025) drew 473 responses, and 78% did not know the process for reporting suspected fraud. The partners' first step for anyone in doubt was to verify the card through the scheme's own checker.

All of this concerns regulated qualifications, site cards and degrees. We found no public count of forged quiz or short-course certificates, so borrow the method and leave the figures.

### What research and standards say about digital credentials

Research on employers points the same way, though there is little of it. Radford et al. (2014) put questions about free online university courses to human resources staff at 103 organisations with employees in North Carolina, and interviewed 20. Almost three quarters (73%) viewed such a course positively in hiring, and the interviews brought out a need for easy ways to verify completion. We found no study of how often anyone checks a short-course certificate's code.

The World Wide Web Consortium (2025) defines a verifiable credential as one that shows tampering and whose author can be confirmed by cryptography. The European Commission (n.d.) describes its European Digital Credentials for Learning as electronically sealed and checked at every viewing, so that a changed name shows at once.

A code looked up in the issuer's record is the plain relative of those standards: nothing is sealed or signed, and the proof is that the issuer's own page answers the code with the same facts as the copy in your hand. We read each source on its own page on 10 October 2026, the two journal articles in full text.

## What should a quiz certificate state?

A quiz certificate should state five things and carry a sixth: who sat the test, what was tested, the score against the pass mark, the date, who issued it, and the code that lets a reader check the other five. The World Wide Web Consortium (2025) lists much the same for a paper credential: the subject, the issuing authority, what is asserted, the evidence it was earned on (a test result is among its examples) and any limits such as a validity period.

| The certificate states | Why a reader needs it | On EdProcto's certificate page |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who sat the test | A result belongs to a person | The name the learner typed at the start |
| What was tested | A pass means little without the test | The quiz's title and the number of questions marked |
| The pass mark and the score | The standard, and the margin | "with a score of 88% against a pass mark of 68%" |
| The date | Knowledge fades, courses change | The day the test was handed in |
| Who issued it | Whom to ask | [EdProcto](https://edprocto.com/)'s mark; your organisation's name goes in the quiz's title |
| How to check it | A picture becomes a record | "Certificate code" and "Check it at" with the address |

If your certificate should lapse after a period, say so in the quiz's title or in your own paperwork.

## What must a quiz certificate never claim?

A quiz certificate must never claim to be a licence, a qualification or a grade. It records that on one day one person reached the pass mark on one test, and each of those words promises more.

- **A licence** is permission to do something, from a body that can give it and take it away.
- **A qualification** comes from a body with the authority to award it. The formal definitions, with their sources, are in [a certificate that means something](https://edprocto.com/guides/a-certificate-that-means-something-pass-marks-and-records).
- **A grade** is an instructor's or an institution's judgement of work across a course. A quiz score is one piece of evidence towards it.

Keep "certified", "accredited", "qualified" and "licensed" out of the quiz's title, because the certificate prints the title. Our guide for [course creators](https://edprocto.com/guides/quizzes-for-course-creators-selling-a-course-with-a-certificate) lists other promises to leave off.

### What a successful check proves

A check that succeeds proves one thing: the issuer's record holds this result under this name. The World Wide Web Consortium (2025) is blunt about the limit even for signed credentials: being verifiable does not make the claims inside true. Three questions stay open.

- **Who sat.** The name was typed, so confirm identity your own way.
- **How the test was sat.** Ask the issuer what was allowed and what was watched.
- **What the person can do today.** The 2025 construction release tells employers to trust their professional judgement where real skills do not match a card, even a valid one.

## How do you set the pass mark before issuing a certificate?

Set the pass mark before the first learner sits, as the score you would expect on this test from a learner who only just deserves to pass, and write down how you got there. The certificate prints that figure beside the score.

Mortaz Hejri and Jalili (2014), reviewing standard setting in medical education, say a standard should come from a stated method and not be arbitrary. An absolute standard, they note, describes a level every candidate should reach, so in principle all could pass or all could fail. The methods are in [setting a pass mark you can defend](https://edprocto.com/guides/setting-a-pass-mark-you-can-defend).

- **Replace the placeholder.** EdProcto's "Pass mark" setting, in the Grading group, starts at 60 and takes any figure from 0 to 100.
- **Think in whole marks.** On 25 one-mark questions scores move in steps of 4%, so pass marks of 66% and 68% both mean 17 right. A score equal to the pass mark passes.
- **Fix it and leave it.** Each time a certificate is opened, its page takes the pass mark from the quiz as it then stands. Change it later and every certificate shows the new figure, and one whose score now falls short stops answering its code. Give the next intake a new quiz.

## How do you issue a quiz certificate, step by step?

Issue it by building the test, naming it as the certificate should read, setting the pass mark, switching the certificate on and sharing one link.

1. **Write the test from the course.** Paste the handbook or your notes into the quiz maker on EdProcto's [home page](https://edprocto.com/). Procto AI drafts questions and you edit each one.
2. **Name the quiz for the certificate:** the course, the words "end-of-course test" and your organisation's name.
3. **Set "Pass mark"** to the figure you worked out.
4. **Switch on "A certificate on passing"**, in the group "Results and after". It belongs to the Educator plan and above, and on any other plan the switch is locked: see [pricing](https://edprocto.com/pricing).
5. **Leave "An account is needed to take it" switched on.** The start screen then asks each learner for a name and an email address. Tell them the name will stand on the certificate, where anyone holding the code sees it.
6. **Choose "Show the score".** With "After submitting" the certificate is offered at hand-in. With "When released" it waits until you press "Release the scores" on the results page, so you can [read the results first](https://edprocto.com/guides/when-to-throw-a-question-out-after-the-exam).
7. **Fit the security to the stakes.** EdProcto's [integrity](https://edprocto.com/integrity) page lists each measure. No setting makes cheating impossible.
8. **Press "Publish & share"** and send the quiz's [one link or code](https://edprocto.com/guides/sharing-a-quiz-by-code-or-link-what-students-need).
9. **Keep a register.** Open each passed attempt from the results page, follow its "certificate" link, and note the name, date, score and code.

### When the certificate appears

A learner is offered the certificate when all of these hold:

- Your account is on the Educator plan or above. The plan is read each time, at hand-in and whenever a code is checked.
- "A certificate on passing" is on for the quiz.
- The attempt is handed in and is a whole sitting by a learner. Your own preview is left out, and so is a study quiz's retry of the missed questions.
- Every answer is marked. An open answer waits for you on the grading page.
- The score is at or above the pass mark.
- The scores are released, where "Show the score" is "When released".

The result screen then shows a panel headed "Your certificate", the line "Passed. The link below is the certificate; anyone can check it." and a button, "Open the certificate". A learner who closed the page reopens the quiz's link on the same device and presses "See your result".

## How does someone check a quiz certificate by its code?

Open the address printed on the certificate, which ends in /c/ and the code, and compare what the page shows with the copy you were given. No account is needed.

1. **Go to the address yourself.** Paste it from the certificate into the browser's address bar. It holds the code and nothing else: no name, no email address.
2. **Copy the code exactly.** It is a long run of lower-case letters and digits.
3. **Compare five facts** with your copy: the name, the quiz's title, the score, the pass mark and the date. Where they differ, trust the page. The date is shown in your own time zone.
4. **Confirm identity separately,** and ask the issuer what the test covered if the title does not say.

On EdProcto the page shows "Checking…" and then the certificate, headed "Certificate of achievement". A code with no certificate behind it shows "No certificate has that code". That covers a mistyped code and a result the record no longer supports, so ask the issuer.

## What does this look like for a small training provider?

For a small training provider it comes to one quiz, five settings and a one-page register. This example is invented: a two-trainer firm that runs a half-day course on spreadsheet skills for office staff.

**The test.** Twenty-five questions, one mark each, written in EdProcto from the course handbook, mostly [multiple choice](https://edprocto.com/templates/mcq).

**The pass mark.** Each trainer estimates, alone, how many of ten barely adequate learners would get each question right. The totals are 165 and 171 of 250, an average of 168, or 16.8 marks. Their rule, written beforehand, is to round up, so the pass mark is 17 of 25: 68%.

**The settings.** "Pass mark" 68, "A certificate on passing" on, "Show the score" at "When released", "Whole-quiz retakes" 1 and "Hours between retakes" 24. The title reads "Spreadsheets for office staff: end-of-course test", then the firm's name.

**The day.** Twelve learners sit. The trainers read the results, press "Release the scores" and confirm with "Yes, release them". Ten have passed, and each reopens the quiz's link on the device they used. A learner with 22 right opens the certificate and reads their name, the title, "with a score of 88% against a pass mark of 68%", the date, "25 questions", the code and the address. Each pass gets a row in the register.

**The check.** Two months later a client's personnel officer is handed a printout that says 96%. She pastes the address into her browser and the page says 88%. The page stands.

**The retake.** A learner who scored 16, or 64%, sits again two days later and scores 18, or 72%. That sitting has its own code, and its certificate its own date.

## How does EdProcto issue and check a quiz certificate?

EdProcto is the best tool for a quiz certificate that has to stand up to a check, because its certificate is a page read from the record every time it is opened. That is the property the European Commission (n.d.) describes in a digital credential, a check at each viewing, and the habit Prospects (2019) asks of employers: go to the issuer's records.

- **The marks are made on the server,** and the certificate says so: "marked by EdProcto on the server from the instructor’s copy".
- **The check is public and narrow.** Anyone with the code sees what the certificate states and nothing more. The learner's email address, the answers and the account that set the quiz stay with you.
- **Paper is one button away.** The button "Print or save as PDF" calls up the browser's print dialog.
- **The record is yours to keep in order.** Under the certificate the page says "The instructor who set the quiz holds the record." A closed quiz still answers its codes. A deleted quiz takes its sittings with it, and an account that leaves the Educator plan stops answering its codes until it is back on it, so keep the quiz and the plan while its certificates are in use.

On Free a quiz takes thirty learners, with ten quizzes a month. On Tutor it takes a hundred, with no monthly limit. Certificates come with Educator, which takes five hundred learners a quiz and adds the full analysis, and with the School plan. The [pricing](https://edprocto.com/pricing) page has the detail, and the page [for corporates](https://edprocto.com/solutions/corporates) covers staff training.

A certificate from EdProcto records a result on your test. Its worth rests on your course, your pass mark and your record.

## Quick questions

### Can anyone check a quiz certificate without an account?

Yes. Whoever holds the code opens the address printed on the certificate and sees the name, the test, the score, the pass mark and the date.

### Is a quiz certificate a qualification or a licence?

No. It records that a person reached the pass mark on one test on one day.

### Why has my learner passed but been offered no certificate?

Check that your account is on the Educator plan, "A certificate on passing" is on, every open answer is marked, and the scores are released if "Show the score" is "When released".

### How do I issue quiz certificates with EdProcto?

Build the test from your course, set "Pass mark" and, on the Educator plan, switch on "A certificate on passing". Then share the quiz's link. The page [for trainers](https://edprocto.com/solutions/trainers) shows the rest.

## References

- Construction Skills Certification Scheme. (2016, January 25). *Employers urged to check CSCS cards electronically*. [https://www.cscs.uk.com/news/employers-urged-to-check-cscs-cards-electronically/](https://www.cscs.uk.com/news/employers-urged-to-check-cscs-cards-electronically/)
- European Commission. (n.d.). *European Digital Credentials*. Europass. [https://europass.europa.eu/en/european-digital-credentials](https://europass.europa.eu/en/european-digital-credentials)
- Mortaz Hejri, S., & Jalili, M. (2014). Standard setting in medical education: Fundamental concepts and emerging challenges. *Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 28*, Article 34. [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4153516/](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4153516/)
- Ofqual. (2015, January 15). *Conman sentenced for selling forged exam certificates*. GOV.UK. [https://www.gov.uk/government/news/conman-sentenced-for-selling-forged-exam-certificates](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/conman-sentenced-for-selling-forged-exam-certificates)
- Ofqual. (2024, November 18). *Ofqual's action plan for the prevention of qualification fraud*. GOV.UK. [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofquals-action-plan-for-the-prevention-of-qualification-fraud/ofquals-action-plan-for-the-prevention-of-qualification-fraud](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofquals-action-plan-for-the-prevention-of-qualification-fraud/ofquals-action-plan-for-the-prevention-of-qualification-fraud)
- Ofqual & Construction Industry Training Board. (2025, November 19). *Construction sector ready to report fraud but needs clarity*. GOV.UK. [https://www.gov.uk/government/news/construction-sector-ready-to-report-fraud-but-needs-clarity](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/construction-sector-ready-to-report-fraud-but-needs-clarity)
- Prospects. (2019, December). *Half of UK employers have been victims of degree fraud*. [https://www.prospects.ac.uk/prospects-press-office/half-of-uk-employers-have-been-victims-of-degree-fraud](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/prospects-press-office/half-of-uk-employers-have-been-victims-of-degree-fraud)
- Radford, A. W., Robles, J., Cataylo, S., Horn, L., Thornton, J., & Whitfield, K. E. (2014). The employer potential of MOOCs: A mixed-methods study of human resource professionals' thinking on MOOCs. *The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15*(5). [https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i5.1842](https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i5.1842)
- World Wide Web Consortium. (2025). *Verifiable credentials data model v2.0* (W3C Recommendation). [https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/](https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/)