# Validation status — 12 October 2026

Completed locally:
- Reviewed original authentication paths, table definitions and candidate class flows in supplied source.
- Static quotes/delimiters scan passed for all changed PHP payload files. This is NOT a PHP parser or PHP syntax lint.
- Verified existing public apply.php, training_apply.php, admin/apply.php and admin/mock_interview_api.php are unchanged.
- Verified inserted admin guards follow strict_types declarations where present.
- Confirmed db.php, email-config.php, .env and candidate upload content are excluded from payload.
- Found and fixed an existing missing closing array bracket in admin/applications-old.php.
- Payload manifest records original and new SHA-256 hashes for merge/rollback review.

Not run here:
- PHP -l / PHP runtime tests. PHP is not installed and installation could not complete in this environment.
- MySQL integration tests, real role/session HTTP requests, staging UI rendering, real video uploads, SMTP delivery or live-site checks.

The CLI helper suite is supplied, NOT reported as passed. Run it and complete STAGING-TESTS.md before deploying to production. The patch is a staging release, not a production verification certificate.