Press kit
Facts, method, brand files and a contact for writing about Shishya. Every number here is read from Shishya's database when the page is built and links to its definition on Shishya in numbers; computed on 27 Sep 2026 (IST), refreshed hourly.
Shishya in one paragraph
One smart place to study
One line
Free, AI-supported practice for students in India: school (CBSE, CISCE), entrance and government exams, colleges, scholarships and careers.
One paragraph
Shishya (https://shishya.in) is one smart place to study for students in India: a free, AI-supported practice platform with independent sections for school (CBSE/NCERT and CISCE, Classes 1-12), entrance exams (JEE, NEET, CUET, NDA, olympiads), government exams (UPSC, SSC, banking, railways, state PSCs, police, teacher-eligibility tests), colleges and scholarships, and careers. It covers 192 entrance and government exams with 39,300+ practice questions answer-checked by AI before they are shown, mocks, previous-year-pattern sets and exam dates marked official, reported or expected; 1,146 NCERT chapters linked to the official books, 124 of them with Shishya's own notes and checked practice; 77 colleges from NIRF 2025 rankings, 187 scholarships and 94 career guides; and an AI tutor in English and 18 Indian languages — every study feature is free, with no paywall.
What is free
- Every study feature is free, with no paywall and no premium tier: school chapters, practice questions, mock tests, previous-year-pattern sets, notes, exam trackers, the AI tutor, and the colleges, scholarships and careers pages.
- The only paid item is an optional session with a human mentor: the first session is free, later ones are ₹9 each, inclusive of GST, paid only after a mentor accepts the request.
- No ads, no affiliate links and no selling of student data.
The same facts are on Pricing, About and the editorial policy.
Who runs it
Shishya is built and operated by Surge Software Solutions Pvt Ltd, an Indian software company in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
- Company website: surgesoftware.co.in
- Email: corp@surgesoftware.co.in
- Every other way to reach the team: contact page
How Shishya is built
The story is the method, not the size. Each part links to where it can be checked.
Grounded in official sources
On every exam tracker a date is marked Official only when it is cited from the conducting body's own site, Reported when it was announced but is cited through a secondary source such as a news or coaching site, and Expected when it is an estimate from previous cycles.
193 official previous-year papers and answer keys are linked on 31 exams, on the conducting bodies' own sites.
7,845 official cutoff rows on 15 exams are copied from the bodies' published documents, each with its source link.
Of the tracker dates in the next 90 days, 71 are marked Official, 55 Reported and 193 Expected.
Answer-checked, with the results published
Every practice question is solved 3 times by an AI model that is not shown the stored answer key, and an AI examiner then compares the key with the solves.
A question stays as written only when the examiner judges the key correct with at least 80% confidence and at least 2 of the 3 solves reach it; when the examiner and at least 2 solves agree on a different option, the key is corrected, and anything unclear is withdrawn from every practice pool.
The check is automated, not a human audit, and it can be wrong; every question keeps its Report button.
By 27 Sep 2026, 42,806 questions had been checked: 38,115 accepted as written, 1,233 with a corrected key and 3,458 withdrawn.
Of the 36,690 questions that were already live when checked, 3.2% had their key corrected and 8.7% were withdrawn.
157 live questions on 55 exams have not been through the check yet; they were validated before it existed.
AI, said plainly
Practice questions, study notes and exam summaries are drafted with AI, and Shishya says so in its editorial policy.
The tutor is an AI tutor and is named as one; it works in English and 18 Indian languages.
Exam content is grounded in the conducting bodies' notifications, previous-year papers and each exam's published pattern, and students can report any question.
School books linked, not copied
School pages follow the NCERT textbooks: each class, subject and chapter page links NCERT's own book and chapter PDF on ncert.nic.in, and the textbook text is never copied, summarised or translated. For CISCE (ICSE and ISC), the council's own syllabus documents are linked.
1,146 NCERT chapters are listed, each linking the official book.
Shishya's own chapter notes are on 230 school chapters so far, and checked practice on 124.
4,228 school questions are written but not shown to students until they pass the answer check.
Key facts
Counted from the database when the page is built, each with its definition, period and date. Share-based numbers are floors: people who study signed out are not seen.
Exams covered
192
Active real exams (REAL_EXAM_WHERE) — the finder's 'Browse all' count; refreshed every 10 minutes.
computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
Practice questions that passed the answer check
39,348
Validated, not withdrawn questions on live exams and school chapters that carry the answer check's pass record (validated by the check, with its verdict stored).
computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
School chapters with Shishya's own notes
230
School chapters whose page carries Shishya's own chapter notes.
computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
Languages
19
English and 18 Indian languages
Locales the UI serves (locales in i18n.ts), English included — a derived constant.
computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
Accounts
1,909
An account is not a unique student: one person can hold more than one, and many study signed out.
User rows (accounts).
all time · computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
Came back within 7 days of signing up
28.7%
213 of 742 accounts
Of the accounts created in the sign-up weeks shown, the share with signed-in activity (a signed-in analytics event not tagged as a bot, a mock started, a mock submitted or auto-submitted, or a question to the AI tutor; the nightly cleanup job's closing of abandoned mocks is not activity) on any of the 7 IST days after their sign-up day. Team accounts are left out. It is a floor: someone who comes back signed out is not seen.
sign-up weeks 17 Aug–13 Sep 2026 · computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
New accounts whose first visit came from an AI assistant
74.1%
106 of 143 new accounts
For each account created in the weeks shown, the source of its browser's first page view on Shishya: the sign-up's browser id is linked to that browser's first page view; failing that, the sign-up event's own tag or referrer; failing that, the referrer stored on the account. A tracking tag (utm_source) wins over a referrer. 'Named source' means that first visit carried a tag or a referrer naming where it came from. Groups under 20 are merged, and the 'Named source' and AI-assistant lines are left out when printing them would give back a merged group by subtraction. Team accounts are left out. What cannot be seen: a visitor who reads one page and arrives with no referrer and no tag gets no identity, and some apps strip both the referrer and the tag, so the AI-assistant share is a floor. ChatGPT's links carry utm_source=chatgpt.com and no referrer; they are counted by that tag.
14–20 Sep 2026 · computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
Mocks per weekly active account
2.24
485 mocks ÷ 217 active accounts; 3.65 per account that took a mock
Mocks taken in the week (submitted or auto-submitted, by finish time) divided by the accounts with signed-in activity (a signed-in analytics event not tagged as a bot, a mock started, a mock submitted or auto-submitted, or a question to the AI tutor; the nightly cleanup job's closing of abandoned mocks is not activity) that week; the second figure divides by the accounts that took at least one mock. Team accounts are left out.
week of 14–20 Sep 2026 · computed 27 Sep 2026 · definition
Story angles
Data a story can start from. Students are the subject; every figure links to its definition.
How a free study platform re-checked its own answer keys
Shishya put 42,806 practice questions through an automated answer check and published what it changed — 1,172 answer keys corrected and 3,196 questions withdrawn, of the 36,690 questions that were already live when checked — with the method and every definition.
Where students arrive from now: links in AI assistants
74.1% of the new accounts created in 14–20 Sep 2026 arrived on a first visit from an AI assistant such as ChatGPT. It is a floor: some apps strip both the referrer and the tag.
Linking the textbook instead of copying it
School pages link NCERT's own chapter PDFs instead of copying them; Shishya adds its own notes only where they are written (230 chapters so far) and practice only where it has passed the answer check.
Shishya Pulse: a weekly note on what students practised
A new week appears each Monday: the exams students took the most mocks for, the most-practised and hardest topics, and the week's official exam dates. Every printed group counts at least 20. Over 24 Aug–20 Sep 2026, the topic students on Shishya practised most was Geography of India (UKSSSC), with 225 answers.
What Shishya is not
- Not an official source
- Shishya is independent: it is not run by, or affiliated with, any exam-conducting body, NCERT, CBSE or CISCE. Its trackers link the bodies' own notices; dates and rules should be confirmed there.
- Practice questions are not official papers
- Mock tests and previous-year-pattern sets use Shishya's own questions, drafted with AI and put through the answer check. Official previous-year papers are linked separately, on the conducting bodies' own sites.
- An account is not a student
- One person can hold more than one account and many study signed out, so account counts are not student counts. The home page's 'learners' counter counts people who came, which proves a visit, not learning.
- No outcome or ranking claims
- The numbers Shishya publishes count use and content. None of them measures exam selections, ranks or score gains, and Shishya claims none for its students and no ranking for itself.
Brand assets
Names: Shishya, शिष्य. Slogan: One smart place to study.
/icons/icon-512.pngPNG · 512 × 512
The शि mark on its saffron tile, rounded corners. The file to use in articles and print.
/icons/icon-maskable-512.pngPNG · 512 × 512
A full-bleed square with the mark inside the safe zone, for round or rounded-square crops.
- /icon.svg
SVG · 64 × 64
The mark as a vector file.
The शि in this file is live text set in Noto Sans Devanagari, so it draws correctly only where that font is installed; use the PNG for print.
- /apple-icon.svg
SVG · 180 × 180
The mark as a vector file, on a larger tile.
The शि in this file is live text set in Noto Sans Devanagari, so it draws correctly only where that font is installed; use the PNG for print.
- /opengraph-image
PNG · 1200 × 630
The social card shown when a Shishya link is shared. The site generates it.
- Saffron
#f97316— the mark's tile - Cream
#fff7ed— the page and app background
Use the files as supplied. Do not redraw, recolour or stretch the mark, and do not use it in a way that suggests Shishya endorses a product, an institution or a story.
Contact and citation
Press questions: corp@surgesoftware.co.in with “Press” in the subject, or the contact page.
How to cite the numbers
Shishya, “Shishya in numbers”, https://shishya.in/shishya-in-numbers, as of 27 Sep 2026.
How to cite the latest Shishya Pulse
Shishya Pulse, week 38 of 2026 (14–20 Sep 2026), https://shishya.in/pulse/2026-w38, computed 27 Sep 2026.
Shishya in numbers · Shishya Pulse · Editorial policy · About Shishya