Naruto had the opportunity to cheat, but didn't. Still the first part of the exam was dumb when you think about it. Higher ranked Ninja would be able to spot cheaters too easily no matter how hard they tried to hide it. Byakugan and sharingan are simple to tell when it's activated, sand siblings had an obvious puppet and a floating eyeball, Kiba was talking to Akamaru the whole time, Shino the known bug guy has bugs flying around him and the room, Tenten has a damn system of mirrors and string hooked to the ceiling and her pencil no idea how or when she set that up, Ino passes out when it's well known that her ability makes her pass out when she uses it. The only one that didn't use an obvious method to cheat was the sound ninja guy who listened to the tapping of the pencil behind him.

Naruto cheated in the cheating