diff --git a/src/Handler/Utils/Exam.hs b/src/Handler/Utils/Exam.hs
index 4291d68e4..8c3798c8a 100644
--- a/src/Handler/Utils/Exam.hs
+++ b/src/Handler/Utils/Exam.hs
@@ -569,7 +569,16 @@ examAutoOccurrence (hash -> seed) rule ExamAutoOccurrenceConfig{..} occurrences
                     -- userTags is guaranteed nonNull
                     end = case t of
                       [] -> replicate (length start) $ last alphabet
-                      _nonEmpty -> maximum $ impureNonNull $ map (transformTag start) userTags
+                      _nonEmpty
+                        | length biggestTag < length start
+                        -- add padding, to keep equal length
+                        -> biggestTag ++ replicate (length start - length biggestTag) paddingChar
+                        | otherwise -> biggestTag
+                        where
+                          biggestTag :: [CI Char]
+                          biggestTag = maximum $ impureNonNull $ map (transformTag start) userTags
+                    paddingChar :: CI Char
+                    paddingChar = CI.mk ' '
                     nextStart :: NonNull [CI Char]
                     -- end is guaranteed nonNull, all empty tags are filtered out in users'
                     nextStart = impureNonNull $ reverse $ increase $ reverse end
@@ -578,8 +587,12 @@ examAutoOccurrence (hash -> seed) rule ExamAutoOccurrenceConfig{..} occurrences
                     increase :: [CI Char] -> [CI Char]
                     increase [] = []
                     increase (c:cs)
-                      | nextChar == head alphabet = nextChar : increase cs
-                      | otherwise = nextChar : cs
+                      | nextChar == head alphabet
+                      = nextChar : increase cs
+                      | nextChar == paddingChar
+                      = head alphabet : cs
+                      | otherwise
+                      = nextChar : cs
                       where
                         nextChar :: CI Char
                         nextChar = dropWhile (/= c) alphabetCycle List.!! 1