Your Exam Form Needs a 20 KB Photo. Now What?

Your exam form requires a photo with a size between 20 and 50 KB, and specific dimensions of 200 x 230 pixels. This seemingly simple task can quickly turn into a quest to visit a cyber cafe when you realize the strict photo requirements. I recently discussed these common frustrations with friends, noticing that different exams demand varying photo sizes, signature sizes, PDF limits, and other small details.

This made me wonder, why isn't there a single platform that addresses all these minor requirements? Thus, I created FormSaathi. FormSaathi is a collection of 9 tools designed to help with the tedious aspects of exam forms. Some of the features include Photo Resizer, Signature Resizer, Thumb Impression Resizer, Resize Image to KB, JPG to PDF conversion, Split & Remove PDF Pages, Compress PDF, Photo + Signature Joiner, Age Calculator, and ready-to-use presets for various exams such as SSC, Railway, Banking, UPSC, NEET, JEE, CUET, CTET, BPSC, and Bihar Police.

FormSaathi prioritizes simplicity, especially for students who may be using entry-level Android phones with limited data. Key features of FormSaathi include a focus on privacy, as the files are processed within the browser and don’t need to be uploaded to a server. The platform is lightweight, featuring simple interactions rather than unnecessary complexity.

Furthermore, it functions offline and can be installed as a Progressive Web App (PWA). The image tools aim to hit the exact KB range with a small margin for safety, rather than simply compressing the file. When building FormSaathi, I heavily utilized AI tools to help with prototyping, writing code, debugging, and testing much faster.

However, the most intriguing aspect was not the generation of code, but rather deciding what a student truly needs, what should be excluded, and how to manage the system during peak usage when thousands of students might simultaneously use it. During testing, I even discovered a potential race condition that could have led to incorrect visitor counts if the FormSaathi link went viral in a WhatsApp group.

Despite its small scale, FormSaathi operates without any sign-up or ads. If you are currently filling out an exam form, I hope FormSaathi will help you avoid an unnecessary trip to the cyber cafe. If you use FormSaathi, please share what you found useful, what was confusing, or if there's any additional tool you wish it had. Your feedback is crucial in determining what future projects I should undertake.