Why won't my External Keyboard work with my iPad?

I’ve had my iPad (10th gen) for about a week now, as a Christmas gift, and at the same time an external keyboard which is compatible with iOS (I’ve checked like, four times).

No matter how I connect the keyboard to my iPad (directly wired, through a usb connector, through Bluetooth…) my iPad shows that the keyboard is connected - or at least the keyboard shows up in the ‘hardware keyboard’ section of the settings - but it won’t type. I’ll be hitting the keys and absolutely nothing shows up on the iPad’s screen… does anyone know what’s happening and what I can do to fix this?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]