Abstract

In any university system, seating plan arrangement in an examination is a critical administrative task and when handled manually, it is time consuming, error-prone, and susceptible to malpractice. This article presents a low-cost cloud-based solution for automating the examination seating arrangement process using the Google Platform—specifically Google Sheets and Google Apps Script. The proposed system eliminates the need for dedicated server infrastructure by leveraging Google’s free cloud services, making it accessible to institutions with limited budgets without compromising the functionality or security. The system comprises Google Sheet for initiating Google Apps Script function to initiate creation of seating arrangement comprising master examination data such as date, shift, paper id, etc. This called function internally calls a Google Script API, which collects student roll number, etc from different master sheets to create the seating plan in a separate Google Sheet. This API is protected through a shared key based authentication mechanism to ensure the security and integrity of the seating data. The system automatically generates seating plans by distributing students from different departments or courses across examination halls according to the selection of rooms made by the seating plan manager. Experimental results demonstrate that the system significantly reduces administrative workload, minimizes human error, accelerates the entire process, and improves overall examination security. The solution is scalable, platformindependent and does not require additional hardware investment beyond an internet-enabled device.

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