With the rapid development of electronic computers and information technology, face recognition is widely used in fields such as enterprises, entertainment, information security, and daily life. However, the current face recognition technology is still relatively poor in distinguishing facial features, resulting in a low accuracy of face recognition, which cannot meet increasing application requirements. For this reason, it is necessary to develop more accurate face recognition technology. Residual neural network (ResNet) neural network is a deep residual learning convolutional neural network, which can be used to solve the degeneration problem (i.e., after adding more layers to the neural network, the performance drops rapidly) of deep-learning neural networks. We aim to study the specific principles, calculation methods, and characteristics of the ResNet neural network, analyze the complexity of the classroom environment, propose the use of ResNet network for face feature extraction, and use additive angular margin loss for deep face recognition (ArcFace) as the loss function of the ResNet network to improve the ResNet network. Because the ArcFace function has the advantages of high performance, easy programming, low complexity and high training efficiency. We use this scheme to conduct field tests of face recognition on many students in the classroom. The test results show that this scheme enhances the discrimination of facial features and improves the accuracy of face recognition. In the case of different numbers of people, facial defects, and strong light exposure, the system can still detect and recognize faces stably. In the case of facial defects, the recognition accuracy rate is still 63.3%, and the recognition accuracy rate is still more than 60% under the illumination of strong light, and the recognition accuracy rate under correct conditions is more than 70%.