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CSS CSS Basics (2014) Basic Selectors Basic Selectors Review

Ryan La Forge
Ryan La Forge
1,670 Points

Misleading quiz question regarding selectors?

In this quiz, there is a question asking which selector is the most specific. The options are

  • ID Selector
  • Class Selector
  • Descendent Selector
  • Type Selector

The answer was stated to be an ID selector; however, isn't it really a descendent selector? Since it's really a composition of two selectors you could write

body #id {background-color: blue;}

The corresponding id selector would simply be

#id {background-color: red;}

In the above example, the background-color would end up being set to blue because it is more specific. Doesn't that mean descendent selectors can be the most specific?

Using the following CSS in the example code for Psuedo classes, the resulting background-color is blue.

body #tag {
  background-color: blue;
}

#tag {
  background-color: red;
}

1 Answer

Michael Hulet
Michael Hulet
47,913 Points

In this case, the background color is blue because the combination of the id selector and the descendent selector makes it more specific than just the id selector afterwards. If you change the descendent selector to be body div instead of body #tag, the background becomes red, regardless of if you put the id selector before or after the descendent one. This shows that an id selector is more specific than just a descendent selector on its own, which is what this quiz is asking