I'm writing program that will test programs written by students. I'm afraid that I can't trust them and I need to make sure that it won't end up badly for computer running it.

I was thinking about making some crash test user with limited access to system resources and run programs as that user but from what I have found on the net so far making virtual system would be safest option...

Can someone help me with choosing right approach? Security is big concern for me, on the other hand I don't want to make overkill and waste much of a time trying learn something I don't really need.

I'm writing a program that will test programs written by students. I'm afraid that I can't trust them and I need to make sure that it won't end up badly for the computer running it.

I was thinking about making some crash test user with limited access to system resources and run programs as that user, but from what I have found on the net so far, making a virtual system would be the safest option...

Can someone help me with choosing the right approach? Security is a big concern for me. On the other hand, I don't want a solution that is overkill and waste much time trying to learn something I don't really need.