Discuss Element selector

Difficulty: 4/10

element selectors, specificity, performance

Understanding the Element Selector in CSS

The element selector in CSS targets all HTML elements of a specific type. It applies the defined style rules to every instance of that HTML element on the page. This selector is also known as a type selector.

Key Features of Element Selector

1
Selects elements by their HTML tag name (e.g., div, p, h1).
2
Applies styles to all matching elements globally unless overridden.
3
Has low specificity compared to class or ID selectors.
4
Useful for setting default styles for common tags.

Example of Element Selector

Scenario Questions

0-2 years experience

2-5 years experience

1You notice that a <nav> element isn’t picking up the styles you wrote with the nav { background: #333; } selector. What are possible reasons it’s not applying?

Follow-up Questions