DevPath · Learn to code ESPTEN

HTML: the structure of the web

What is HTML?

HTML: the skeleton of the web

Welcome to the track where what you write shows up on screen instantly. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the skeleton of every website: the language used to describe the structure of a page. In a few minutes you'll have your very first page.

It is not a programming language: it is a markup language. You tell the browser "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", "this is an image", and it draws it. You give the orders, it paints.

Tags and elements

Markup is done with tags between < and >. Most come in pairs, like a set of tongs: an opening one and a closing one (this one with /). Opening, content and closing together make an element.

<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

Nesting elements

Elements are placed inside one another, forming a tree:

<body>
  <h1>My blog</h1>
  <p>Welcome to my <strong>first</strong> website.</p>
</body>

<strong> (bold with emphasis) lives inside the paragraph, like a box within another box. That hierarchy of nested boxes is exactly the DOM you already saw in JavaScript.

In these exercises you write HTML and see the result instantly in the preview. Hit Check and watch your page take shape; the validation checks the structure you generate.

Put this into practice

DevPath is a hands-on course: you read the theory here; in the app you put it into practice with exercises that really run, offline.

Start free in the app →
Headings, paragraphs and lists →