For decades, the Uniform Bar Examination has been old school, with bar candidates using paper-and-pencil exam books. But starting with the first administration of the NextGen UBE next year, the test will be entirely conducted on the examinees’ personal computers.

History has shown that technology used for the bar exam can be filled with snafus. Pandemic-era experiments for remote bar exam administrations had hiccups—and of course, California’s attempt in February to launch a new, tech-dependent exam was nothing short of a disaster.

So the National Conference of Bar Examiners has been carefully treading through a maze of tech challenges, knowing that nothing can go wrong with the high-stakes exam.

In this episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, the ABA Journal’s Julianne Hill talks with Kara Smith, the NCBE’s chief product officer. It’s her job to get the tech involved exactly right for the new exam. They discuss how the NCBE will keep the exam secure, what backup plans are in place, and how to keep test days free of tech-induced drama.