LaTeX Practice Exercises for Beginners
Ten hands-on LaTeX practice exercises for beginners — from your first document to math, tables and citations, each with a goal and a hint to try.
The fastest way to learn LaTeX is to compile, not just read. These ten beginner exercises move from your first document to math, tables, figures, and citations — each with a clear goal and a hint. Do them in order, compiling every one in LetX, and you'll cover the essentials in an hour. The free LaTeX Fundamentals course at learn.letx.app has guided lessons with solutions.
How to use these
Open a browser editor so there's nothing to install, then attempt each exercise before checking the hint. The point is to type the commands — muscle memory is what makes LaTeX feel natural. Compile after every change so you connect each command to its visible effect.
Exercise 1: Your first document
Goal: produce a PDF that says "Hello, LaTeX!"
Hint: you need \documentclass{article} and a document environment.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Hello, LaTeX!
\end{document}
Exercise 2: Title block
Goal: add a title, your name, and today's date.
Hint: set \title{}, \author{}, \date{\today} in the preamble, then call \maketitle inside the document.
Exercise 3: Sections
Goal: create an Introduction and a Conclusion with a subsection under each.
Hint: \section{} and \subsection{} auto-number. Add \tableofcontents at the top and compile twice.
Exercise 4: Text formatting
Goal: write a paragraph using bold, italic, and monospace text.
Hint: \textbf{}, \textit{}, \texttt{}.
Exercise 5: Lists
Goal: make a bulleted list of 3 items and a numbered list of 3 steps.
Hint: the itemize and enumerate environments, with \item per entry.
Exercise 6: Inline and display math
Goal: write "the area is A = πr²" inline, then display the integral of x² from 0 to 1.
Hint: $...$ for inline, \[...\] for display; use \pi, r^2, \int_0^1, \frac.
The area is $A = \pi r^2$.
\[ \int_0^1 x^2 \, dx = \frac{1}{3} \]
Exercise 7: A table
Goal: build a 3-column table with a header row.
Hint: tabular with a {l c r} column spec; separate cells with & and rows with \\.
Exercise 8: A figure
Goal: insert an image at 80% text width with a caption.
Hint: load graphicx, use a figure environment with \includegraphics[width=0.8\textwidth]{...} and \caption{}.
Exercise 9: Cross-references
Goal: label the figure from Exercise 8 and reference it in a sentence.
Hint: \label{fig:x} after the caption, then Figure~\ref{fig:x}. Compile twice.
Exercise 10: Citations
Goal: cite one source and print a bibliography.
Hint: create a .bib entry, use \cite{key}, then \bibliographystyle{plain} and \bibliography{file}.
What to do next
If you finished these, you can write a real paper. Next steps are the align environment for multi-line math, the booktabs package for cleaner tables, and hyperref for clickable links. Work through the structured lessons at learn.letx.app to lock it in with solutions and live compiling.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best way to practice LaTeX? Type and compile real examples with instant preview. Reading alone is slow; compiling builds intuition fast.
Do I need to install LaTeX to practice? No — browser editors like LetX compile online, so you can do every exercise here without installing a TeX distribution.
In what order should I learn LaTeX? Structure → text → math → lists/tables → figures → references → citations. These exercises follow that order.
How long will these exercises take? About an hour for all ten if you compile as you go. That hour covers most of what everyday LaTeX requires.
Where can I get solutions? The free course at learn.letx.app provides guided versions with worked solutions.
Written by Shihab Shahriar Antor — AI Engineer & Founder of Shahriar Labs. Work the guided lessons in the free LaTeX Fundamentals course at learn.letx.app and compile them live in LetX. Also building freelm.