HTML BasicsBeginner8 min read

What is HTML?

Understand what HTML is, why it exists, and how browsers use it to display web pages.

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Lesson Content

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the standard language used to create and structure content on the web. Every website you visit — from Google to YouTube — is built on HTML at its core.

When you type a URL into your browser, the browser sends a request to a server. The server responds with an HTML file. The browser then reads that file and renders it as a visual page you can see and interact with.

HTML uses a system of tags to describe the structure of content. Tags are keywords wrapped in angle brackets, like <h1> or <p>. Most tags come in pairs — an opening tag and a closing tag — and the content sits between them.

HTML is not a programming language. It doesn't have logic, loops, or variables. It is a markup language — its job is to describe what content is, not how it behaves. That's where CSS (styling) and JavaScript (behaviour) come in.

Think of HTML as the skeleton of a webpage. CSS is the skin and clothes. JavaScript is the muscles that make it move.

code example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>My First Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>This is my first HTML page.</p>
  </body>
</html>

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Your First HTML File

Learning Objectives

1Understand what HTML stands for and its purpose
2Learn how browsers parse and render HTML
3Identify the role of HTML in the web stack
4Distinguish HTML from CSS and JavaScript

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