WeBWork Technical Requirements and Integration 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which protocol should be configured on a production WeBWorK server to encrypt student data in transit?
- FTP
- HTTPS via TLS/SSL (Correct answer)
- HTTP/1.0 only
- SFTP
Correct answer: HTTPS via TLS/SSL
HTTPS with a valid TLS certificate is required on production servers to protect student credentials and grades.
Question 2: In WeBWorK's Docker-based installation, which file is used to define environment variables such as the database password?
- Dockerfile
- docker-compose.yml
- .env file (Correct answer)
- webwork2.conf
Correct answer: .env file
The .env file holds sensitive environment variables like DB_PASSWORD that docker-compose reads at startup.
Question 3: What is the purpose of the WeBWorK 'WW_THEME' configuration variable?
- Sets the color of math equations
- Controls which CSS theme is applied to the interface (Correct answer)
- Selects the database schema version
- Determines the LaTeX compiler used
Correct answer: Controls which CSS theme is applied to the interface
WW_THEME specifies which CSS/HTML theme WeBWorK uses to render its student-facing and admin interfaces.
Question 4: Which tool is commonly used to test whether WeBWorK's SMTP email configuration is working correctly?
- The 'Email Instructor' link in the student interface
- The 'Send Test Email' button in Site Administration (Correct answer)
- Restarting Apache and checking logs
- Running perl -e 'use Mail::Sender'
Correct answer: The 'Send Test Email' button in Site Administration
Site Administration includes a 'Send Test Email' feature that verifies SMTP settings without needing a real course.
Question 5: WeBWorK's 'Webwork RPCs' are used primarily for which integration purpose?
- Generating PDF exports of problem sets
- Allowing external systems to render WeBWorK problems in an iframe or API call (Correct answer)
- Synchronizing the database with an LMS
- Backing up course data to remote storage
Correct answer: Allowing external systems to render WeBWorK problems in an iframe or API call
WeBWorK's XML-RPC interface lets external systems request problem rendering and answer checking outside the normal student UI.
Question 6: Which file permission setting is required on WeBWorK's 'courses' directory to allow the web server to write new course data?
- 755 owned by root
- 644 owned by www-data
- 775 owned by www-data (or the Apache user) (Correct answer)
- 777 owned by nobody
Correct answer: 775 owned by www-data (or the Apache user)
The courses directory must be writable by the Apache user (typically www-data) so WeBWorK can create and modify course files.
Question 7: What is the role of 'dvipng' or 'dvisvgm' in a WeBWorK installation?
- Converts student-uploaded PDFs into problems
- Renders TeX-formatted math expressions into images or SVG for display (Correct answer)
- Compiles Perl problem files into bytecode
- Generates CSV grade exports
Correct answer: Renders TeX-formatted math expressions into images or SVG for display
dvipng and dvisvgm convert DVI output from LaTeX into PNG or SVG images so math formulas display correctly in the browser.
WeBWork Technical Requirements and Integration 3
Which protocol should be configured on a production WeBWorK server to encrypt student data in transit?