This news went viral on social media. As soon as the exam was over, photos of the paper started being shared, and students made videos showing what happens when the QR is scanned.
People were laughing in the posts on X (Twitter), some wrote – ‘This was not in my 2026 CBSE list.’ Or ‘Look how serious the exam authorities are!’. This prank has astonished millions of people, and now it has come to a serious occasion like board exam. CBSE later issued a clarification that the paper is genuine, there was no compromise on security, and the QR code is only for verification. This link appeared in some sets, but the board took it seriously.
This incident shows the power of QR code and its fun use. Let us know about QR code in detail.
What is QR CodeQR?
The code is a small 2D barcode-like pattern, consisting of a grid of black-and-white squares. It can store and read information fast. Nowadays it is used everywhere – payment, ticket, menu, even in product details.
What is the full form of QR Code?
The full form of QR Code is Quick Response Code. ‘Quick Response’ because it gives instant response when scanned – like website, text, contact or video link.
How does QR Code work?
The information in QR codes is encoded in binary form (0 and 1). Black squares represent 1 and white squares represent 0. It consists of three large squares (alignment patterns), which tell the camera where the code begins and ends. In between there is data, error correction and version information. When you scan with the phone, the camera captures the image, the app decodes it and opens the stored information (like URL). Even if the code is slightly damaged due to error correction, it can still be read.
Difference between QR Code and Bar Code?
Barcodes are 1D – made up of just horizontal lines, like those on products in stores. It stores very little data (20-25 characters), and requires a linear scanner to scan. QR code is 2D – stores data in both directions (horizontal and vertical). It can hold thousands of characters (up to 7000 alphanumeric, or 4000+ Kanji).
There is no special scanner for this, scanning is done with the mobile camera. Barcode is used only for numbers or simple codes, whereas QR code is used for URL, text, Wi-Fi details, payment etc. QR is more versatile and faster.
When did QR Code start?
The use of QR codes began in the mid-1990s. After being invented in 1994, DENSO WAVE used it for automotive parts tracking. It became popular in Japan in the 2000s with mobile phones, where people accessed websites through QR. This became very common in India and the world after 2010 with the advent of smartphones, especially for contactless payments and menus during COVID-19. Today, QR is seen everywhere – from advertisements to ticket booking to exam papers.
When and who created QR Code?
The QR code was invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara, an engineer at the Japanese company Denso Wave (a subsidiary of Toyota). In 1992, he was given the task of improving the barcode scanner because parts tracking in the factory was becoming slow. Hara and his team (which included only one other member) developed the QR code in 1.5 years. He took inspiration from the board game ‘Go’, where positional information is important. Hara added position detection patterns, making the code faster to read. DENSO WAVE kept it as open source, did not charge any patent fees, so that it could spread all over the world. Hara did not expect that it would reach payment, memes or exam papers.
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