DEVCHA is a wordplay on CAPTCHA. CAPTCHA is a test used to determine whether the taker of the test is a human or a computer. DEVCHA is a test used to determine whether the taker of the test is a developer (computer programmer) or non-developer. Essentially, a DEVCHA is a puzzle that a developer can solve easily while non-developers would find it very difficult, even with Googling.

The term was first coined by the developers of BharatPe.com. The company came up with an offer of superbike for anyone who joins their engineering team. Since it was a compelling offer, the engineering team needed a way to prevent a flood of non-relevant job applications. So they included a creative DEVCHA puzzle on their recruitment website as a way to amuse developers and prevent non-developers from filling the job application form.