How to Bypass Any CAPTCHA in Web Scraping

Flipnode on May 04 2023

Transcribed as Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, CAPTCHA is a test that determines whether a user that’s trying to gain access to a website or data is real. By providing challenges that prove to be hard for computers to solve, CAPTCHAs quickly identify bots and; therefore, prevent such activities as scraping and crawling.

This article will provide insights into how to bypass CAPTCHA in web scraping. We’ll talk about the different types of tests that can be encountered in the modern internet landscape as well as discuss useful anti-CAPTCHA solutions to implement in your data gathering operations.

What are the different types of CAPTCHAs?

The three general types of CAPTCHAs available today are: text-based, image-based, and sound-based.

Text-based CAPTCHAs

Text-based CAPTCHAs are one of the oldest types of CAPTCHAs, usually consisting of a combination of random characters and letters presented in an unfamiliar format. The characters are rotated, resized, distorted, skewed, or manipulated in various ways to make it challenging for bots to recognize them. In certain instances, numbers and letters are overlaid with diverse components like colors, dots, lines, arrows, and background noise, among others.

Image-based CAPTCHAs

As they are more intricate, image-based CAPTCHAs are a more effective anti-bot measure compared to text-based ones. The concept behind an image-based CAPTCHA is relatively straightforward – it displays an array of images and prompts the user to select a particular type of image. For example, if the subject is "traffic lights," the user must click on every image that includes a traffic light.

Despite being simpler for humans to understand, image-based CAPTCHAs pose a greater challenge for many bots as they require both image recognition and semantic categorization.

Sound-based CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHAs that use sound, also known as audio CAPTCHAs, were designed as an alternative for people with visual impairments. These CAPTCHAs feature audio clips with a mix of letters or numbers that the user must enter. Usually, there is some background noise added to the audio CAPTCHA, which makes it more challenging for both humans and bots to interpret accurately.

What is reCAPTCHA?

It is worth noting another type of CAPTCHA called reCAPTCHA, which is a free service provided by Google to safeguard web pages.

As computer technology advances, the development of more advanced versions of reCAPTCHA has become necessary to maintain a high level of protection. Presently, reCAPTCHAs can even distinguish a real user without any action on their part. This is accomplished by analyzing the user's prior interactions with other websites.

Developing your own solution

Certainly, it is feasible to build your own CAPTCHA solver that suits your web scraping requirements. Though the development process may take a while, it can be customized to suit your specific needs and achieve greater success rates, which would enable you to conduct web scraping operations smoothly.

Puppeteer is a framework that can assist you in creating an efficient CAPTCHA solving tool. However, note that it would require significant time and effort to write and manage code that can adapt to the ever-changing nature of CAPTCHAs.

Final thoughts

In order to successfully collect public data, it is important to overcome the common challenge of CAPTCHAs. This article has offered various anti-CAPTCHA solutions that can be implemented in your web scraping operations, as well as provide an overview of the different types of CAPTCHA tests that exist today.