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LaTeX & Typst (papers, theses, resumes and slides) Module 1

Start here: from source file to PDF interview questions

Interview questions on “Start here: from source file to PDF”: warm-ups, then what each harder question tests and how a good answer starts.

15 questions: 5 warm-ups and 10 with model answers · Levels: Fresher to senior

Warm-up questions

Short questions with short answers, each answered in full.

  1. Fresher to mid

    How do TeX, LaTeX and a distribution such as TeX Live differ?

    Answered in the lesson LaTeX and Typst: what they are and when to use each

  2. Fresher to mid

    How do TeX Live, MiKTeX and TinyTeX differ?

    Answered in the lesson Install TeX Live, TinyTeX or MiKTeX, and Typst

  3. Fresher to mid

    Why does LaTeX sometimes need two runs?

    Answered in the lesson Your first document and the compile cycle

  4. Fresher to mid

    Why can a % sign make text disappear in LaTeX, but not in Typst?

    Answered in the lesson Special characters, quotes, dashes and spaces

  5. Fresher to mid

    What is a minimal working example, and why do people ask for one?

    Answered in the lesson Reading errors and making a minimal example

Questions with model answers

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

  1. Fresher to mid

    Your group must submit a paper in five days to a journal that publishes its own LaTeX class. One co-author edits only in Word with tracked changes; another would rather write in Typst. Which toolchain do you choose, and how do you organise the writing so that nobody's work is lost?

    What it tests
    Separating a venue's fixed requirement from preferences, planning how each person's changes come back, and avoiding a last-minute conversion of a whole paper.
    First step
    Start from the one requirement nobody can change: the journal wants LaTeX source in its class, so the master file is a .tex file in that class from the first day. Then decide how the Word user's changes come back, and what the Typst user hands over, before anyone writes a paragraph.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson LaTeX and Typst: what they are and when to use each

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    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  2. Mid to senior

    Your department marks about 200 lab reports a term, all written from a LaTeX template, and asks whether students should move to Typst. Make the case for or against, and say what you would measure before deciding.

    What it tests
    Weighing build speed, tagged output and learning cost against templates, venues and package coverage, and turning the decision into checks instead of taste.
    First step
    Ask where the reports go. If they are only marked as PDFs, nothing outside the department needs LaTeX source, so the question becomes whether every feature the template uses exists in Typst. List those features, then time one typical report in both systems on a student laptop.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson LaTeX and Typst: what they are and when to use each

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  3. Fresher to mid

    Every student's thesis builds on their own laptop, but the department's build server stops on some of them with "File `exam.cls' not found" or a similar missing file. What do you check, and how do you make the build give the same result for everyone?

    What it tests
    Telling a missing file from a broken document, reading what the server has installed, and pinning the toolchain so laptops and the server agree.
    First step
    Compare the two environments before touching the document: the first line of each log gives the engine and TeX Live year, and kpsewhich on the server shows whether the named file exists there. A file present on the laptops and absent on the server is an installation gap, not a writing mistake.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Install TeX Live, TinyTeX or MiKTeX, and Typst

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  4. Fresher to mid

    You installed TeX Live 2026, yet your logs still begin with TeX Live 2023 and a package you just installed with tlmgr is not found. Explain what is going on and how you fix it without reinstalling anything.

    What it tests
    Understanding PATH order, matching tlmgr to the installation that runs, and confirming a fix from the log rather than from memory.
    First step
    Ask the shell which copies exist: which -a pdflatex and which -a tlmgr list every copy in PATH order. If the 2023 copy comes first, both the engine and tlmgr belong to it, so the package went into the tree you are not using, or into the new one that never runs.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Install TeX Live, TinyTeX or MiKTeX, and Typst

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  5. Fresher to mid

    The PDF your CI job builds from a thesis shows ?? in place of every figure and section number, while the PDF on the author's laptop is fine. The job runs pdflatex once. What is wrong, and what should the job run instead?

    What it tests
    Understanding the .aux cycle, why a laptop hides it, and replacing a fixed number of runs with a tool that decides from the log.
    First step
    Notice what differs: the laptop keeps its .aux files between builds, so one more run there always reads numbers from the run before, while the CI job starts from a clean checkout and runs pdflatex once, so it never reads any. The fix is to run until the log asks for no rerun.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Your first document and the compile cycle

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 2 minutes

  6. Fresher to mid

    After a co-author's commit, the CI job that builds your paper runs until it is killed after an hour, with no error in its output. Explain what most likely happened and how you change the build so it can never happen again.

    What it tests
    Knowing TeX's default interaction mode, reading what a stopped build looks like, and making a build fail fast with a usable message and exit status.
    First step
    A LaTeX build that neither finishes nor fails is almost always waiting for input: by default TeX stops at an error and shows a ? prompt. Look at the end of the job's output for an error message followed by ?, and the line it names, before changing anything.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Your first document and the compile cycle

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 2 minutes

  7. Fresher to mid

    A script builds attendance letters from a spreadsheet: names, course titles and fees go into a LaTeX template. One letter lost half its text, another failed to build. How do you find the cause, and how do you make the script safe for any row?

    What it tests
    Recognising reserved characters in data, telling silent loss from errors, escaping at the boundary where data enters the template, and testing the result.
    First step
    Look at the two rows, not at the template: a fee such as "40% off" or a course called "R&D" in the data is enough. A % hides the rest of its line without an error, and & stops the build, so the cause is unescaped data, not the template.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Special characters, quotes, dashes and spaces

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  8. Fresher to mid

    A chapter pasted from a word processor builds on your laptop with LuaLaTeX, but the department's pdfLaTeX build stops with "Unicode character (U+202F) not set up for use with LaTeX". The line looks fine. What is happening, and how do you fix the chapter and stop it happening again?

    What it tests
    Reading a Unicode error by its code point, knowing why engines differ, and cleaning pasted text systematically rather than line by line.
    First step
    Trust the code point, not your eyes: U+202F is a narrow no-break space, which a word processor can insert and no one can see. pdfLaTeX has no definition for it, while LuaLaTeX passes it to the font. Find every such character in the chapter by its code point before editing anything.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Special characters, quotes, dashes and spaces

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  9. Fresher to mid

    A 200-page thesis split into chapter files stops with "Runaway argument?" and "File ended while scanning use of \@xdblarg", with no line number of the author's. The submission is tomorrow. How do you find the mistake quickly?

    What it tests
    Reading what a runaway argument does print, narrowing a multi-file document by halving, and fixing without breaking the rest.
    First step
    Read the text after "Runaway argument?": TeX prints what it swallowed, starting at the brace that never closed. Search all chapter files for those first words; they usually lead straight to a heading or caption whose closing brace is missing.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Reading errors and making a minimal example

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

  10. Fresher to mid

    Your report builds with exit status 0 the day before it is due, but the log has 40 "Overfull \hbox" lines, 3 "Missing character" lines and "There were undefined references". You have two hours. What do you fix first, and why?

    What it tests
    Ranking warnings by what the reader loses, reading the size of an overfull box, and checking the result in the PDF instead of the log alone.
    First step
    Rank by what the reader sees. Undefined references print ?? and missing characters leave gaps or wrong words, so both change the content; most overfull boxes stick out by a point or two, which few readers notice. Start with the references and the characters, then the overfull lines by size.
    Follow-ups

    From the lesson Reading errors and making a minimal example

    In the answer:

    • Model answer
    • Follow-up answers
    • Common mistakes
    • Rubric
    • Variants
    • about 3 minutes

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