Large-scale & high-concurrency exams

Run high-stakes exams at national scale

When thousands of candidates start at the same second, you need purpose-built exam infrastructure — not a quiz tool or an LMS. Synap is architected on AWS for high concurrency, resilience and uptime, and field-tested on over 10 million exams worldwide.

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  • 10K+ concurrent starts
  • 99.9% uptime SLA
  • ISO 27001
Exam control
Live

Candidates in progress

12,438▲ peak 14,902

Uptime 99.9%Errors 0Avg load 0.8s
Staggered intake · 08:45–09:15
08:3009:00 start10:0011:00
London09:00

6,204

Lagos10:00

3,118

Singapore17:00

1,942

São Paulo06:00

1,174

All systems operational 4 regions · 20 timezones

10 million+

exams delivered worldwide

Trusted by awarding bodies, universities & professional bodies

The infrastructure blind spot

At exam scale, infrastructure is everything

Assessment platforms are usually judged on their features — the question types, the proctoring, the candidate experience. But on exam day, none of it matters if the platform buckles the moment thousands of candidates sign in at once.

General-purpose tools assume traffic grows gradually and outages are a minor inconvenience. High-stakes exams are the opposite: demand arrives in a single spike, and a few minutes of downtime can invalidate an entire sitting. Synap is built the other way round — purpose-built exam infrastructure, engineered for the spike and the stakes.

Further reading: The infrastructure blind spot in online exams

General-purpose tools

  • ✕ Assume gradual, predictable traffic
  • ✕ Treat downtime as a minor inconvenience
  • ✕ Scale up reactively — minutes too late

Purpose-built exam infrastructure

  • Capacity pre-positioned for the spike
  • Engineered so every minute stays up
  • Resilience baked in at every layer

Why it matters

Why quiz tools and LMSs fall over on exam day

The technology that runs day-to-day learning was never designed for the pressures of a high-stakes exam.

  • Quiz tools aren’t built for the stakes

    Lightweight quizzing platforms are fine for practice and low-stakes checks, but they aren’t engineered for the scale, security and reliability a formal exam demands.

  • LMSs can’t absorb the spike

    Learning platforms assume steady, gradual traffic. Ten thousand candidates starting at 09:00 is a sudden load they were never architected to handle.

  • Downtime isn’t an inconvenience — it’s a crisis

    A slow page on a shopping site is forgotten in seconds. Minutes of downtime mid-exam means invalidated results, resits and reputational damage.

“Good exam infrastructure is invisible. When it fails, it becomes the only thing anyone remembers.”

Purpose-built for scale

Exam infrastructure, engineered for the spike

Synap runs on AWS, architected specifically for the demands of high-stakes assessment: capacity ready before candidates arrive, resilience at every layer, and an uptime record proven across millions of exams.

Pre-positioned capacity

We provision for your expected peak ahead of time, so the exam-start spike is met instantly — not chased by reactive scaling.

Resilient by design

Network resilience, automatic retries and seamless resume are built in at every layer, so a wobble in one place never becomes a failure.

Proven at scale

Over 10 million exams delivered worldwide — including in some of the most challenging environments on earth.

Proven under pressure

  • 10K+

    Concurrent exam starts

  • 99.9%

    Uptime SLA

  • 10M+

    Exams delivered

  • 500K+

    Candidates worldwide

Reliability by design

How we keep every exam up

Resilience isn’t a single feature — it’s dozens of decisions, at every layer of the stack.

No-downtime maintenance

Updates roll out without taking the platform offline — no maintenance windows that collide with your exam.

99.9% uptime SLA

A 99.9% uptime commitment as standard, with enhanced SLAs for critical exam periods.

Network resilience & auto-retry

Dropped connections and flaky networks are handled gracefully — automatic retries and seamless resume mean candidates pick up exactly where they left off.

Staggered entry & queueing

Smooth the exam-start spike with staggered intake windows and intelligent queueing, so load is spread instead of stacked.

Pre-flight system checks

Candidates and devices are checked for compatibility ahead of time, catching problems before exam day — not during it.

Minimal third-party dependencies

A deliberately small dependency footprint means fewer things outside our control that can go wrong.

Zero-trust security

Built on zero-trust principles, with private networks, least-privilege access and ISO 27001 certification.

Continuous, tested backups

Continuous backups with tested restores, across multiple availability zones and regions.

See the full technical detail — security & data protection

We’ve done this before

We understand how exams actually run

We’re not general software that happens to do exams — we’re exam infrastructure, shaped by years of running assessments in every conceivable setting.

In-person and remote. Bring-your-own-device and locked-down lab machines. High-bandwidth campuses and rural sites on patchy connections. National olympiads, and sittings coordinated across 20 timezones. Whatever your scenario, there’s a good chance we’ve run something like it — and there are settings to adapt Synap to it.

Field-tested from South Africa to Myanmar to Haiti — and 20 timezones in between.

Scheduling & delivery controls
In-personRemoteHybridBring-your-own-deviceManaged lab devicesLow-bandwidth & ruralCross-timezone coordinationNational olympiadsMulti-region sittings

Not just software — a partner

We’re with you the whole way

High-stakes exam days are stressful. You don’t run them alone.

Plan it together

We work with you ahead of time to configure delivery, capacity and contingencies around your exact exam.

Rehearse before the day

Dry runs and system checks make sure everything — and everyone — is ready well before candidates arrive.

Supported on exam day

Our team is on hand during live sittings, monitoring and ready to respond the moment you need us.

Part of one platform

Everything a high-stakes exam needs

Large-scale delivery is one part of Synap. Combine it with the rest of the platform, or explore the full overview.

See the full online exam platform

Planning a large-scale exam?

Let’s pressure-test your exam day

Book a call and we’ll walk through your scale, timing and contingencies — and show you how Synap holds up when it matters most.

Talk to our team

FAQs

Large-scale exam questions, answered

Find quick answers or browse our academy.

Still not sure?

Tell us what you need to assess and we will point you to the right answer.

Talk to sales

Or ask an AI about Synap

Synap routinely handles 10,000+ concurrent exam starts and is architected to scale well beyond that. For large events we pre-position capacity for your expected peak, so the platform is ready before candidates arrive rather than scaling up reactively once they do.
A 99.9% uptime SLA as standard, with enhanced commitments for critical exam periods. Just as importantly, maintenance and updates roll out without taking the platform offline, so there are no maintenance windows that can collide with your exam. Full detail is on our security & data protection page.
Exam state is saved continuously, and network resilience is built in throughout: dropped connections trigger automatic retries and a seamless resume, so candidates return to exactly where they left off without losing work or time.
Two ways. We pre-position capacity for the expected peak, and we help you smooth the spike itself with staggered intake windows and intelligent queueing — spreading the load instead of stacking it into a single instant.
Yes. We regularly run sittings coordinated across many regions and up to 20 timezones, with regional AWS hosting in the EU and US. We’ve delivered exams in some of the most challenging environments in the world, from high-bandwidth campuses to rural, low-connectivity sites.
Always. We plan the exam with you, run dry runs and system checks beforehand, and our team is on hand to monitor and respond during live sittings. You never run a high-stakes exam alone.

Exams that hold up when it counts

See how Synap delivers high-stakes exams at national scale — book a call with our team.

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Certified & independently rated

ISO 27001 Certified