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LaTeX & Typst (papers, theses, resumes and slides) Module 6

Citations and bibliographies interview questions

Interview questions on citations and bibliographies: short warm-ups, then what each harder question tests, the first step of a good answer and its follow-ups.

12 questions: 4 warm-ups and 8 with model answers · Levels: Fresher to senior

Warm-up questions

Short questions with short answers, each answered in full.

Fresher to mid

Why does a reference list print "lstm" when the .bib file says LSTM?

Answered in the lesson Bibliography files and reference managers
Fresher to mid

Why does a biblatex document need Biber between two LaTeX runs?

Answered in the lesson BibLaTeX and Biber
Fresher to mid

How do natbib's \citet and \citep differ?

Answered in the lesson BibTeX, natbib and publisher .bst styles
Fresher to mid

Typst reads both .bib and Hayagriva files. When would you write Hayagriva?

Answered in the lesson Typst bibliographies, Hayagriva and CSL styles

Questions with model answers

What each question tests, the first step of a good answer and the follow-ups to expect.

Fresher to mid

Two co-authors each keep a .bib file of about 300 entries for a joint paper. Merged, the file has 41 keys that occur twice, and some works appear under two different keys. Plan the merge so that the paper builds the same in biblatex and in Typst, and say how you check the result.
What it tests

Knowing how Biber, BibTeX and Typst treat a repeated key, telling same-key clashes from same-work duplicates, and checking a merged file before any build depends on it.

First step

Sort the problems into two kinds before changing anything: one key used for two different works, which Biber and BibTeX settle silently by keeping the first, and one work under two keys, which prints the work twice. List both with a script or with bibtex-tidy's --duplicates, by key, by DOI, and by author and title.
Follow-ups
- How do you rename keys without breaking either author's chapters?
- Two entries for one work disagree on the page range. Which do you keep?
- How do you stop new duplicates after the merge?
From the lesson Bibliography files and reference managers
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In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Fresher to mid

A thesis cites 62 works. Its .bib file was built from a reference manager, a colleague's file and an AI assistant's answers, and the submission is in two days. How do you make sure every reference is real, complete and printed correctly?
What it tests

Separating three checks, existence, completeness and printing, and choosing a tool for each: DOI resolution, Biber's --validate-datamodel and the PDF's own text and links, in the order the deadline allows.

First step

Split the job into three checks that need different tools: that each work exists, because its DOI or another identifier leads to it; that each entry has its type's required fields, which Biber reports with --validate-datamodel; and that the PDF prints it right, which pdftotext and pdfinfo -url show. Start with the entries from the AI assistant's answers.
Follow-ups
- One reference has no DOI. How do you confirm it?
- The style lowers acronyms in several titles. How do you find all of them?
- What would you automate for the next thesis?
From the lesson Bibliography files and reference managers
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Fresher to mid

A 180-page thesis uses biblatex's numeric style for 240 citations, mostly with \cite, and sentences such as "Rao [12] showed". The department now requires author-year citations. Plan the switch, and say how you prove that no citation reads wrongly afterwards.
What it tests

Knowing which citation commands follow a change of style and which do not, finding hand-typed names, and checking the built text instead of the source.

First step

Change nothing yet; find what will break. Only \autocite, \textcite and \parencite follow a style by themselves. Search the source for \cite after a capitalised name, for \cite inside typed brackets or parentheses, and for \footcite, and count each kind: those are the citations a new style alone cannot fix.
Follow-ups
- Some sentences need both the authors and a page. How do you write them?
- How do you find the hand-typed names without reading 180 pages?
- Does the order of the list change with the style?
From the lesson BibLaTeX and Biber
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes
Mid to senior

A thesis needs a reference list at the end of each of its six chapters and one complete list at the end, numbered so that a reader of any chapter finds the same entry under the same number in the complete list. Design it in biblatex, and say what you check in the PDF.
What it tests

Choosing a biblatex structure that keeps one numbering across overlapping lists, and checking numbers and entries in the built PDF.

First step

Start from the numbering rule, because it decides the design. Numbers that must match the complete list mean one numbering for the whole thesis, which rules out a reference section per chapter: Biber numbers each section on its own, from 1. Look for a way to mark each chapter's citations inside that one numbering.
Follow-ups
- Would you use defernumbers here?
- A work is cited in chapters 2 and 5. Where does it appear, and under which number?
- The examiner wants the chapter lists in order of citation. What changes?
From the lesson BibLaTeX and Biber
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

Your paper builds locally with biblatex and Biber on a newer TeX Live, but after upload the submission system's log shows errors in the bibliography and a warning about incompatible .bbl versions. Explain what happened, and get the paper through without changing how it looks.
What it tests

Knowing that a biblatex .bbl is versioned data tied to its program, reading its format line, and choosing between uploading the .bib file and building a compatible .bbl.

First step

Read the first lines of the .bbl you uploaded: biblatex writes its format version there, and arXiv's help names the formats each of its TeX Live versions accepts. Compare the two before changing anything, and check that the .bbl was made by Biber, the backend the document selects.
Follow-ups
- Why does a BibTeX .bbl not have this problem?
- When is uploading the .bib file the better choice?
- How would you test the upload before sending it?
From the lesson BibTeX, natbib and publisher .bst styles
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

A 30-page paper written with biblatex, \autocite and \textcite, and a list split into works and datasets, is accepted on condition that it uses the journal's template, which names elsarticle-num.bst. Convert the paper, and say what you lose and how you check the result.
What it tests

Mapping biblatex's commands and features to natbib and BibTeX, recognising what BibTeX does not do, such as several lists and Unicode sorting, and checking the converted PDF against the old one.

First step

List what the paper uses that BibTeX will handle differently: the citation commands, the split list, entry types such as @online and @dataset, and names beyond ASCII. Decide each one before you touch the preamble, because each has a different fix.
Follow-ups
- What do \autocite and \textcite become?
- The datasets cannot keep a list of their own. What do you do?
- How do you show that no reference was lost?
From the lesson BibTeX, natbib and publisher .bst styles
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

A journal sends its CSL file for your Typst paper. The rendered list follows the journal's guide except in three ways: article titles appear in title case where the guide wants sentence case, a dataset is labelled as software, and one name is printed wrongly. Find each cause and fix it without editing the journal's style.
What it tests

Telling style behaviour from data problems, knowing how CSL treats the case of stored titles, and fixing entries rather than the journal's style, then proof-reading the result.

First step

Sort the three symptoms by their source before changing anything. A CSL style prints titles as stored and only converts them to title case, so title case in a sentence-case style points at the stored data; a wrong label points at the entry's type; a wrong name points at how the author field is written.
Follow-ups
- Why not convert the titles in the CSL file itself?
- How do you check the change does not break a co-author's biblatex version?
- The guide also wants the access date in a different form. Where would you look?
From the lesson Typst bibliographies, Hayagriva and CSL styles
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 3 minutes
Mid to senior

A lab moves its reports from LaTeX with biblatex's IEEE style to Typst, keeping the same .bib file of 400 entries. The first Typst build differs from the old PDFs in titles, dates and headings. Plan the move so that the reports still meet the IEEE guide, and say how you prove it.
What it tests

Mapping biblatex commands to Typst citations, knowing where Typst's IEEE output differs from biblatex's and why, and checking output systematically instead of by eye.

First step

Compare one report's old and new reference lists line by line before changing anything, and sort each difference into one of three kinds: a parameter of the bibliography, such as its heading; the stored data, such as the case of titles; or the style itself, such as how it writes a date.
Follow-ups
- What do \autocite, \textcite and \nocite become?
- Which differences can you fix, and which must you accept?
- How would you compare 400 entries without reading them all?
From the lesson Typst bibliographies, Hayagriva and CSL styles
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 2 minutes

The lessons of this module

Bibliography files and reference managers Free lesson, Pro answers: 30 minutes
BibLaTeX and Biber Free lesson, Pro answers: 25 minutes
BibTeX, natbib and publisher .bst styles Free lesson, Pro answers: 25 minutes
Typst bibliographies, Hayagriva and CSL styles Free lesson, Pro answers: 25 minutes

All LaTeX & Typst (papers, theses, resumes and slides) interview questions · The LaTeX & Typst (papers, theses, resumes and slides) track

Warm-up questions

Why does a reference list print "lstm" when the .bib file says LSTM?

Why does a biblatex document need Biber between two LaTeX runs?

How do natbib's \citet and \citep differ?

Typst reads both .bib and Hayagriva files. When would you write Hayagriva?

Questions with model answers

Two co-authors each keep a .bib file of about 300 entries for a joint paper. Merged, the file has 41 keys that occur twice, and some works appear under two different keys. Plan the merge so that the paper builds the same in biblatex and in Typst, and say how you check the result.

A thesis cites 62 works. Its .bib file was built from a reference manager, a colleague's file and an AI assistant's answers, and the submission is in two days. How do you make sure every reference is real, complete and printed correctly?

A 180-page thesis uses biblatex's numeric style for 240 citations, mostly with \cite, and sentences such as "Rao [12] showed". The department now requires author-year citations. Plan the switch, and say how you prove that no citation reads wrongly afterwards.

A thesis needs a reference list at the end of each of its six chapters and one complete list at the end, numbered so that a reader of any chapter finds the same entry under the same number in the complete list. Design it in biblatex, and say what you check in the PDF.

Your paper builds locally with biblatex and Biber on a newer TeX Live, but after upload the submission system's log shows errors in the bibliography and a warning about incompatible .bbl versions. Explain what happened, and get the paper through without changing how it looks.

A 30-page paper written with biblatex, \autocite and \textcite, and a list split into works and datasets, is accepted on condition that it uses the journal's template, which names elsarticle-num.bst. Convert the paper, and say what you lose and how you check the result.

A lab moves its reports from LaTeX with biblatex's IEEE style to Typst, keeping the same .bib file of 400 entries. The first Typst build differs from the old PDFs in titles, dates and headings. Plan the move so that the reports still meet the IEEE guide, and say how you prove it.