How to cheat on an online test in 2026: what works on unproctored quizzes, what gets caught

Step one: is your online test proctored?

Every online test is one of two kinds. A proctored test runs under a tool that locks the browser or watches the computer, and sometimes you too. An unproctored test is a web page in your normal browser, and the platform only records what happens on that page. The same trick can go unnoticed on one and get flagged on the other.

You can usually tell before you start. The test page, the syllabus or your instructor names the tool, and you are asked to download LockDown Browser, add the Honorlock or Proctorio extension, or pass a camera and microphone check like Proctorio's. If you see none of that, you are most likely on a plain web test. Here is what each tool says it does:

Respondus says that in LockDown Browser "right-click menu options, function keys, keyboard shortcuts and task switching are disabled" and "copying and pasting anything to or from an assessment is prevented". With Respondus Monitor, "students use a webcam to record themselves during an online exam". Honorlock's extension permissions page says it can "close already open tabs or block new tabs" and "disable extensions after consent from the user for the duration of the exam"; its cell phone detection page says it "flags visible mobile phones during the exam"; and its desktop app guide says the secure Chrome "prevents the use of native browser AI Tools like Google Lens and Gemini". Proctorio's homepage lists the settings a school can switch on.

The honest summary: on a proctored test, the methods you read about on Reddit are exactly what these tools are built to catch. We do not sell a way around them. Canvas Quiz Solver does not run in LockDown Browser or Respondus, and Honorlock and Proctorio can turn Chrome extensions off, so it is for unproctored quizzes. For the full picture, read whether LockDown Browser records you.

What an unproctored online test can see

Without a proctor, the test is a web page, and a web page sees very little. It cannot see your screen, your other tabs, your phone or the apps you run. What any page can see is its own focus. The browser fires a blur event when the page loses focus, and a visibilitychange event when the page is hidden, for example when you switch tabs or a phone "switches from the browser to a different app". The platform also stores each answer and when you saved it.

Canvas turns this into a quiz log. On a Classic Quiz, the log writes Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page when a student "closes the browser tab, opens a new browser tab, or navigates to a different program", and Resumed when the student comes back, each with a time (Instructure quiz log guide). The events behind those lines carry no data, so the log never names the tab or site you went to (Canvas quiz events API). New Quizzes shows "moments of stopping and resuming the quiz" on its Moderate page. See a Canvas quiz log, line by line.

Other platforms keep their own logs. We have checked Canvas only, so for Blackboard, Moodle or a publisher site, read that platform's own documentation.

How people cheat on online tests, and what gets caught

Search for how to cheat on an online exam and the same methods come up. The table puts each one next to what a plain Canvas quiz records and what a proctoring tool does with it.

Switching tabs is the giveaway

Every method that sends you somewhere else for the answer (ChatGPT, Google, Quizlet, a chat app) leaves the test page. On Canvas that writes a Stopped viewing and Resumed pair, and a teacher reading the log sees a gap before the answer. A timed Canvas quiz also keeps running: timed quizzes "do not pause if the student navigates away from the quiz" (Instructure quiz options). More in does Canvas detect tab switching.

Copy and paste

Copying is not the problem on its own: the Canvas quiz log has no copy or paste event. The trip to the other window is. A web page can listen for the copy and paste events on its own page, and proctored tests block the clipboard outright. More in can Canvas detect copy and paste.

Your phone

A phone next to the laptop is outside the web page, so an unproctored test does not see it. The cost is time: you type or photograph each question and carry the answer back by hand, while every saved answer gets a time. On a webcam-proctored test, the camera is there for exactly this.

AI built into the browser

Gemini in Chrome and Google Lens read the page you are on, so they skip the copy step, and AI browsers such as Perplexity's Comet can act on the page for you. What they do to the quiz log is not documented. We cover each one in Gemini, Google Lens and AI browsers on Canvas quizzes.

A friend or a group chat

The test cannot read your messages, but the grader sees every student's answers, so the same wrong answer across a group can stand out. A chat app on the same computer also takes focus from the test page.

What works on an unproctored Canvas quiz: answers inside the page

If your online test is a Canvas quiz without a proctoring tool, the method that never leaves the page is an extension that answers on the page. Canvas Quiz Solver is a Chrome extension built for that:

1. Add Canvas Quiz Solver to Chrome from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Open your Canvas quiz as usual. A Get Answer button appears on each question.
3. Click it. The answer appears right below the question, inside the Canvas quiz page.

No second tab, no copying into ChatGPT, no window switch, so no page switch for the quiz log to record. The log still shows what it shows for every student: which questions you viewed and when you answered.

A web page cannot list the Chrome extensions you have installed. Chrome runs an extension's content script in an isolated world, and by default no extension files are web accessible. More in does Canvas detect Chrome extensions.

It reads multiple choice, true or false, short answer, fill in the blank, matching, numerical, essay, ordering and categorization questions, on Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes. The answers come from AI, so they can be wrong: read each one before you pick it.

What it is not: it runs only on Canvas, in Chrome on a computer. It does nothing on Blackboard, Moodle, Google Forms or a publisher's test site, and it is not for proctored tests. You can start free, then one plan is $14.99 a month. Subscribe before the quiz starts, because checkout opens in its own tab.

Add Canvas Quiz Solver to Chrome arrow_forward

Online test myths that do not hold

• "Use incognito." The test page writes its log while it is open. Private browsing changes your history and cookies, not that.
• "Come back within 15 seconds and it does not count." The figure comes from an Instructure Community forum answer, not from Instructure's documentation, which gives no time threshold. See what Stopped viewing means.
• "A VPN hides you." A VPN changes the IP address the platform sees. It changes nothing about focus entries or answer times.
• "Teachers can see your screen on any online test." Only with a proctoring tool that records it. A plain Canvas quiz log holds events and times, not images of your screen.

Sources we checked

• LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor (Respondus), checked 2026-10-08
• Honorlock extension permissions and functions, Honorlock Application: test taker experience and Cell phone detection (Honorlock), checked 2026-10-08
• Proctorio homepage and Setup check (Proctorio), checked 2026-10-08
• How do I view a quiz log for a student?, How do I use the Moderate page in New Quizzes? and What options can I set in a quiz? (Instructure Community), checked 2026-09-25
• Quiz Submission Events (Canvas LMS REST API), checked 2026-09-25
• Can "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" in the quiz log reveal cheating? (Instructure Community forum thread, not documentation), checked 2026-09-25
• Window: blur event, Document: visibilitychange event, Element: copy event and Element: paste event (MDN Web Docs), checked 2026-10-08
• Content scripts and Manifest - web accessible resources (Chrome for Developers), checked 2026-09-25

Common questions