Question 1 · Beginner
What is HTML, and what is its role in web development?
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard markup language that describes the structure and meaning of web content. It is the foundation layer of every web page, on top of which CSS adds presentation and JavaScript adds behaviour.
HTML is not a programming language: it has no variables, loops or logic. It is a markup language that annotates content with elements so that browsers, search engines and assistive technologies know what each piece of content is — a heading, a paragraph, a link, a form control, a table.
Its role in web development:
- Structure – defines the document outline (headings, sections, lists).
- Semantics – conveys meaning, which drives accessibility and SEO.
- Hypertext – links documents together via
<a href>, which is what makes the web a web. - Embedding – loads images, media, styles and scripts.
- Interaction primitives – forms and native controls that work without JavaScript.
HTML is maintained by WHATWG as the HTML Living Standard, so there are no more numbered versions after HTML5.
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 a paragraph with a <a href="/about">link</a>.</p>
</body>
</html>Result: The browser displays a large heading and a paragraph containing a clickable link. The markup describes what the content is; it does not describe colours or behaviour.