If you have ever checked your PNR status on the Indian Railways’ website, you know the drill – you are asked to solve a simple addition or subtraction question as part of the captcha to prove you are not a bot. But for one passenger, that simple check turned into a maths exam. The passenger was left confused after the IRCTC website threw a complex maths question at him while he was trying to check his PNR status.
The post quickly caught the attention of internet users, with many finding the situation hilarious. Social media was flooded with jokes about Indian Railways testing passengers’ mathematical skills before allowing them to travel. A second person commented, “Ok, but why did this actually make me laugh out loud? A third stated, “IRCTC is offering advanced maths preparation alongside. Go ahead! Take the challenge. However, not everyone was convinced that the screenshot was genuine. Several users questioned its authenticity and suggested that it may have been edited or fake. They pointed out that IRCTC Captchas are generally much simpler, often involving basic addition or subtraction.
Some said that passengers might soon need to keep calculators handy while booking tickets or checking PNR status. One user said, “Shayad irctc tume JEE advance ke liye prepare Krna chahta hain. “They’re making sure whosoever is using that website is literate,” a fourth added.
the complexity of this particular question appeared to catch the user off guard While IRCTC allows users to refresh and generate a different captcha. Sharing the screenshot, the user jokingly wrote that he was only trying to check his PNR status and asked to be spared. In another post, the user poked fun at the captcha, suggesting that the maths questions on the IRCTC website had suddenly become much harder. Check out the tweet:
The captcha reportedly displayed the equation (9876 × 543 − 2468) ÷ 4 = ? before the user could proceed to check his ticket details.
“Sorry for checking the PNR status, forgive me,” the tweet read. “IRCTC captcha k math question hard aane lage hai,” he wrote.
