HTML · Quick Reference

Lesson 1 — How Websites Work Cheat Sheet

HTML

In one line: A website is a collection of files stored on a computer called a server, accessible over the internet. Those files come in three main flavours: HTML (structure), CSS (style) and...

Key Ideas

1What is a Website?. A website is a collection of files stored on a computer called a server, accessible over the internet. Those files come in three main flavours: HTML (structure), CSS (...

2Frontend vs Backend. Web development is commonly split into two sides of a wall. Understanding which side does what prevents enormous confusion later.

3Client-Server Architecture. Every website visit is a request-response cycle. Your browser (the client) asks for something; the server sends it back. Here's the full journey when you type a URL an...

4How Browsers Work. When a browser receives HTML, it doesn't display it raw — it goes through a rendering pipeline. Understanding this helps you write better HTML and diagnose visual issues.

5URL Structure. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of a resource on the web. Every part has a specific meaning — knowing them helps you write correct links and understand...

Code Examples

GET /courses/html/ HTTP/1.1
Host: bitwithbite.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0)
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.9
Connection: keep-alive

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 12483
Cache-Control: max-age=3600

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  ...
</html>