IIM Bangalore midterm: 78 students built chatbots to answer their own exam
By TUF News Desk · Published 31 October 2026 · 4 min read
Fact-checked against 2+ independent sources · Editorial policy
In the June-July term, 78 MBA students at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore took a midterm on generative AI without writing a single answer themselves. Each student built a chatbot, trained it on the course material, and submitted the bot to answer the exam questions.
The students came from the core Business Analytics cohort and a general MBA elective. The experiment was designed by Professor Subhabrata Majumdar of the Decision Sciences area. He built a password-protected testing platform on Vercel in two weeks, using AI-assisted coding tools. The platform locked each chatbot to the assigned course material, with no internet access or outside information, so the exam tested what students had put into the bot and how they had instructed it.
How the exam worked
Students had about a month to build, test and revise their bots before submitting a final version. The paper had 15 questions on generative AI concepts, the kind a traditional midterm would set. What changed was the skill under test.
Grading looked at prompt engineering, parameter tuning and how well students applied course concepts. A teaching assistant checked the final answers, as in a conventional exam. The platform used a no-code retrieval-augmented generation workflow, so students without a coding background were not at a disadvantage.
One detail shows why the design mattered. Some students found the platform struggled with complex PDF formatting, and the stronger bots adapted by converting course material into plain text first. Majumdar, who spent eight years in industry before joining academia, has said a hands-on, no-code evaluation suits business students better than a closed-book exam, because it tests problem-solving rather than recall.
Course evaluation scores for the format came in between 4.5 and 5 out of 5. Majumdar now plans to open-source the platform and work with colleagues to use the same testing framework in other courses at the institute.
Other campuses are moving the same way
The Bangalore experiment sits inside a wider shift across Indian campuses. At IISER Pune, AI use is permitted by default this semester unless a teacher or PhD supervisor prohibits it in writing, although most quizzes and semester exams there are still held without AI. At IIM Ahmedabad, professors encourage students to use tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini to summarise long business cases before class, and the institute has bought 1,500 AI-tool licences. The Indian School of Business leaves the call to individual faculty members for each course, assignment and project.
Harvard shows the same split. An analysis of 20 popular Harvard College courses found nearly all had adopted AI policies by fall 2025, against none before fall 2022. A faculty survey cited by The Harvard Crimson found 34 per cent permitted AI use with strong restrictions and 35 per cent with some restrictions, while 24 per cent prohibited it, up from 20 per cent a year earlier, and 4 per cent allowed unrestricted use, down from 8 per cent.
For MBA aspirants, the message is practical. Business schools are starting to test whether students can build and direct AI tools. Candidates comparing schools can read our guide to choosing a university in India, and keep certificates and score reports ready with help from our admission documents checklist. Details of the institute’s programmes are published on the official IIM Bangalore website.
Frequently asked questions
How did the IIM Bangalore chatbot midterm work?
Each student built a chatbot trained on the assigned course material, and the bot answered the 15 midterm questions on generative AI. The bots could not access the internet or outside information.
How many students took part in the IIM Bangalore AI midterm?
78 MBA students took part, drawn from the core Business Analytics cohort and a general MBA elective, during the June-July term.
What were students graded on in the chatbot midterm?
Grading covered prompt engineering, parameter tuning and how well students applied course concepts. A teaching assistant checked the final answers, as in a conventional exam.
Will other IIM Bangalore courses use the chatbot exam format?
Professor Subhabrata Majumdar plans to open-source the testing platform and work with faculty colleagues to extend the framework to other courses at the institute.
Frequently asked questions
How did the IIM Bangalore chatbot midterm work?
Each student built a chatbot trained on the assigned course material, and the bot answered the 15 midterm questions on generative AI. The bots could not access the internet or outside information.
How many students took part in the IIM Bangalore AI midterm?
78 MBA students took part, drawn from the core Business Analytics cohort and a general MBA elective, during the June-July term.
What were students graded on in the chatbot midterm?
Grading covered prompt engineering, parameter tuning and how well students applied course concepts. A teaching assistant checked the final answers, as in a conventional exam.
Will other IIM Bangalore courses use the chatbot exam format?
Professor Subhabrata Majumdar plans to open-source the testing platform and work with faculty colleagues to extend the framework to other courses at the institute.
Sources: The Indian Express, The Financial Express, News18