‘We backdated posts’: After Telegram scrutiny over NEET, UPSC coaching institute explains how ’82 questions matched’ in Prelims
The controversy over Delhi-based coaching institute Anantam IAS’s claim that 82 UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination questions matched its content has taken a new turn, with the institute ‘admiting’ on Wednesday that it backdated posts. This comes admid government banning Telegram over a similar issue with regards to NEET on Tuesday.The row began after NSUI questioned the claim saying, “If 82 out of 100 questions come from the content of just one coaching institute, this is not mere coincidence but a matter warranting serious investigation. The youth want to know whether any injustice is being done alongside their years of hard work,” it had said in the post on X in Hindi. In response, the Centre debunked the claim as “fake”.Anantam IAS later issued a clarification denying having prior access to the UPSC paper and rejected suggestions of a leak. In a statement, the institute said, “A claim is being circulated that Anantam IAS already had the UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2026 questions or that the paper was leaked to us because some of our answer-key explanation articles displayed publication dates from before the examination.”The institute said it solved the paper only after the examination was held on May 24, 2026, and then prepared answer keys and detailed explanations for candidates. It acknowledged that some articles carried publication dates from before the exam, but said those dates had been intentionally backdated as part of an editorial decision.“It is simply that we solved the paper after the examination on 24 May 2026, just like every other institute. The earlier publication dates that some people saw were intentionally used to organise a large series of explanation articles in a logical order,” the statement said.Explaining the decision, Anantam IAS said publishing dozens of detailed articles at the same time would have flooded subscribers with notifications and emails. It therefore assigned earlier publication dates to some articles so the content could appear in a structured sequence.Further defending itself, the institute further said there was a difference between a publication date and an update date on WordPress. According to the statement, only the publication dates were changed, while the modification dates remained unchanged and showed that the articles were created or edited after the examination.“That was a mistake in presentation, not an attempt to mislead. As soon as we realised this confusion, we corrected it,” the institute said, referring to the fact that its website previously displayed only publication dates and not modification dates.Anantam IAS also said it continues to backdate some articles as part of routine content management. “This is housekeeping, not concealment,” the statement said.To support its position, the institute pointed to WordPress post IDs, which it described as sequential numbers that cannot be backdated. It argued that the IDs attached to the disputed articles showed they were created after the UPSC examination had taken place.The institute said all 66 answer-key explanation articles cited in the controversy carried update dates of May 24 or May 25, 2026. It invited critics to verify the information through page source data, developer tools and website records.
