1. Introduction
Every web page you have ever opened is, at its core, two things working together: HTML, which supplies the content and structure, and CSS, which supplies the appearance and layout. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) tells the browser what things are — this is a heading, this is a paragraph, this is a link. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) tells the browser how those things should look — this heading is blue, that paragraph is centred, this box has 20 pixels of padding.
For BCS, Bank IT, and IT-officer examinations this is one of the most frequently tested areas of "Web Technologies". Questions are almost always factual and precise: Which tag creates an ordered list? What does the <a> tag's href stand for? What is the correct order of CSS specificity? Which HTML version introduced the <video> tag? If you master the exact tags, attributes, CSS properties, the box model, selector specificity and the cascade, you can answer virtually every MCQ on this topic with confidence.
2. Learning Objectives
After studying this lesson you will be able to:
- Explain what HTML and CSS are and how they cooperate to build a web page.
- Recall the standard structure of an HTML5 document and the purpose of every core tag.
- Distinguish block-level and inline elements, and semantic vs non-semantic tags.
- Use the three ways of applying CSS (inline, internal, external) and know when each wins.
- Apply CSS selectors and correctly compute specificity to predict which rule wins.
- Explain the CSS box model and calculate the total rendered size of an element.
- Recall key HTML5 and CSS3 features commonly asked in exams.
- Avoid the classic mistakes that cost marks in MCQs.