If you’re hearing about CSS Specificity for the first time, let’s break it down for you.
Think of it like giving directions in a family. Suppose you're planning a trip. Your cousin suggests a route, your sibling insists on a shortcut, but then your mom steps in and says, “We’re taking this road, and that’s final.” Who wins? Your mom, of course (in most cases). Because her decision carries the most authority.
CSS works the same way. When multiple styles target the same element, the most specific rule takes precedence. Understanding specificity helps ensure your styles work as expected, preventing unexpected overrides and confusion.
In this article, you will get a knowledge boost on CSS Specificity
What is CSS Specificity
It’s a set of rules that determines applying styles to an element when multiple styles are applied. The highest specificity means the highest priority, and that style will be applied to the HTML text. The concept of CSS specificity comes into play when more than one CSS rule targets the same element. In such cases, the selector with the highest specificity is given the highest priority and applied.
Why is Understanding Specificity Important
We can learn CSS quickly and start working easily, but understanding specificity is crucial if:
- Many front-end developers are working on the same project.
- You’re making changes to previously completed projects as a maintainer.
To understand how browsers determine which CSS properties to apply when multiple styles affect an element, we need to answer:
- How does the browser determine which CSS properties to apply?
- How can I calculate the CSS priority weight applied to an element?
How to Determine the Specificity of Styles
To answer these questions, we can understand specificity in two parts:
- Specificity Hierarchy (Most Specific Selector)
- Specificity Calculation (Most Weighted Selector)
Specificity Hierarchy
Every CSS selector has an inherent priority level in the specificity hierarchy, as described below:
| Selector Priority | Description |
| Inline Styles (e.g., style="...") | Highest priority, because it applies directly using the style attribute. |
| IDs | Second highest priority, identified by the unique id attribute of an element. |
| Classes, attributes, and pseudo-classes | Medium level of specificity. |
| Elements and pseudo-elements | Lowest priority. |
Example:
h2.title will be applied over .title. Inherited styles can be overridden by making them more specific.
Specificity Calculation
When multiple CSS rules apply to the same element, built-in rules assign weights to different selectors. By calculating these weights, we can determine which style will be applied.
| CSS Selectors | Points (Weight) |
| Inline Styles (e.g., style="...") | 1000 |
| IDs | 100 |
| Classes, attributes, and pseudo-classes | 10 |
| Elements and pseudo-elements | 1 |
Example 1:
|
<h2
|
|
Example 2:
| <ul class=”main-menu”> <li> <a href=”#”>Item 1</a> </li> </ul> <div id=”main”> <ul class=”main-menu”> <li> <a href=”#”>Item 1</a> </li> </ul> </div> |
|
Best Practices
- Always use classes instead of IDs because IDs have the highest weight and are difficult to override.
- Never use !important as it breaks specificity rules and cannot be overridden easily.
- Keep CSS selectors concise and follow the BEM methodology for better maintainability.
Final thoughts
It is important to understand CSS specificity for writing clean, maintainable stylesheets. By following the specificity hierarchy and calculating specificity scores, you can avoid unintended style conflicts and ensure your styles are applied as expected. Stick to best practices, favor classes over IDs, minimize reliance on !important, and keep your selectors structured. Learning and mastering specificity will help you write more efficient CSS and collaborate seamlessly on projects.
Need a stunning, user-friendly design? Our expert UI/UX design team ensures seamless user experiences with visually engaging, accessible, and intuitive designs. Get in touch today!
