The Best Exercises and Quizzes to Help You Learn CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a technical language used for creating the layout and structure of web pages and applications. With CSS, you can tailor the style of a webpage and create a responsive webpage design, making a site accessible for both desktop and mobile users.

According to Indeed, over 35,000 jobs requiring skills in CSS are available right now. Knowledge of CSS is one of the best digital skills to have, especially as it’s desired throughout many career fields, including front end development and game development. This article covers some of the best CSS exercises and beginner-friendly projects. 

CSS Exercises to Help You Learn CSS

Below are some CSS practice exercises to provide you with basic knowledge in CSS. We’ll also list additional resources to enhance your current programming level. These will help with your day-to-day tasks, develop your CSS skills, and prepare you to answer technical CSS interview questions. 

10 CSS Exercises and Practice Problems (With Solutions)

1. CSS Link Color

CSS link colors provide and control the colors of anchor links embedded in the website. This function defines embedded links in an alternative color to your text to make them stand out. Learning how to change these color schemes and what stages a link goes through during a user’s experience is vital.

Solution: You can use a step-by-step guide to learn CSS link colors. CSS Tricks and W3schools also provide CSS link color practice exercises to hone your skills.

2. Working with CSS Box Model

A CSS box model refers to the rules determining how CSS components’ sizes are calculated while adding padding, borders, and margins that surround content. Inadequate CSS box modeling can cause inadequate responsiveness and fragile layouts.

Solution: Follow a how-to guide on CSS box models. You can also practice your box modeling skills with MDN Web Docs.  

3. Working With Font-Weight

Declaring the wrong font-weight can cause text to appear in a way that is contrary to what you intended. Alternatively, sometimes, you can have the correct CSS rule in place and the text still won’t be working as it should. This could be a problem with the element changing from a 2D space to a 3D space, or vice versa. 

Solution: Follow a guide on using font-weight. W3schools provides five exercises you can do to hone your font-weight abilities. 

4. Understanding CSS Basic Syntax 

CSS code is created using basic syntax that follows CSS rules. Knowledge of CSS basic syntax is critical within the digital product development industry. Using the correct selectors or a combination of selectors, like a chaining selector or element selector, and CSS declaration can be a tricky part of your development learning experience.

Solution: Read a CSS syntax guide so you can learn about CSS style rules, CSS declarations, CSS selectors, CSS comments, and single-line and multi-line comments. 

5. Create a Button Using Your CSS3 Skills

This button-creating exercise will illustrate your ability to perform various skills. When creating a button, you will have to implement and consider various factors, such as multiple borders, using custom fonts, and catching the subtle text-shadow. You will also need to understand how to split the background from the main part of the button and do precision work with the nested border-radius.

Solution: Practice makes perfect. Do this button-recreating exercise from Mobify to practice and increase your CSS proficiency. 

6. Fix a Sidebar

Imagine that a sidebar has fallen below the page content. This happens because the two-column layout doesn’t add up to 100 percent due to the padding. However, there are various ways to rectify it. 

This basic project will show you how to use box-sizing, how to use calc() to perform calculations when specifying CSS property values, how to adjust the numbers to make the math work, and how to put the padding on an added internal wrapper element.

Solution:You can practice and enhance your skills and knowledge involving CSS-coded sidebars with CodePen.

7. Fix Width Changes for Responsive Design 

The design in this exercise is 800px wide. For a responsive design, content should fit any screen size. In your CSS coding journey, you will need to practice changing pixel widths, use responsive image solutions, and retain the hierarchy of importance. Remember to test your design and make sure your solutions work.  

Solution: CodePen has a practical exercise you can practice to help master your skills in CSS. 

8. Solving Issues with CSS Selector

CSS must be written in a particular format for a browser to understand it. It is the first part of a CSS rule, pattern of elements, and other terms that communicate to the browser which HTML components to select and apply the CSS property values to. These are known as the “subject of the selector”.

Solution: Practice using CSS Selectors by following a guide. Checking your CSS writing can be time-consuming, and there are various free tools to help, such as {CSS}Portal. CodePen also provide practical exercises you can do online.

9. CSS Grid layout 

A CSS grid layout is used in many industries today, including within the layouts of articles and blog posts. This is a two-dimensional layout for the web. Laying content out in rows and columns allows many features that simplify creating complex layouts. It is one of the most challenging topics in CSS, especially when you have to account for responsiveness. 

Solution: MDN Web Docs offers a comprehensive exercise to practice. 

10. Practice CSS code 

Working with a CSS file and writing CSS code is vital. Writing bad CSS code can mess with the entire system. For example, the margins may act strangely or you may end up with wrong or insufficient animations. Doing some actual coding is the best way to boost your CSS code writing skills. 

Solution: There is an easy way to practice with Flexbox Froggy, a kids’ web app game, with 24 exercises ranging from beginner to intermediate. Play Flexbox Froggy’s online games to write CSS code. 

How to Get Help with CSS

Getting help with CSS is relatively easy with all the available tools and endless amounts of resources that you can find online. You can find experts, reports, tutorials, and more on various CSS-specific problems you may be encountering. 

Whether you have a blue background color that should be red, or you’re dealing with a cross-origin font concern, a wealth of online resources covering advanced topics are available to help you resolve your CSS issues. Below are some of the best resources for you to use. 

CSS Exercises

The exercises in this article provide CSS experience through practice and you can find many similar exercises online. These exercises also increase your CSS knowledge and skills in dealing with specific and common CSS problems. Mastering these exercises will aid you in creating an excellent responsive design, while working up to advanced CSS exercises. 

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CSS Projects

CSS is one of the most used front end technologies for website development and is usually used with HTML. CSS projects help you build a portfolio. This portfolio can provide valuable practice for honing your CSS skills and illustrating your proficiency level to prospective employers.

CSS Quizzes

Testing your CSS knowledge and skills is vital to acquiring proficiency in CSS. Whether you want to test your CSS skills or take quizzes that cover specific topics, like how to create and modify an unordered list, a background image, a separate file, class names, or CSS gradients, you can find many CSS quizzes online.  

CSS Forums and Blogs

Forums and CSS coding blogs can be helpful resources, providing assistance and solutions for complex concerns you may be struggling to figure out. They also provide updates on new technologies and industry-related information that may be of practical importance to you. 

Where Can I Practice CSS?

As illustrated within this article, you can practice CSS independently with the available online resources. You can practice CSS through projects and add them to your coding portfolio. You can also practice while you study CSS through free or paid courses. 

Websites to Practice CSS

• freeCodeCamp. This is one of the best resources to learn CSS and other programs for free, with over 7,000 tutorials and loads of challenges.
• Codewell. This site provides real-world Figma templates to practice. This is a good place for leveling up your CSS skills. You can also engage in valuable conversations on solutions and feedback on the website or within the Slack community.  
• CSSBattle. This is a CSS-specific gamification system that is an excellent way to check and track progress. These battles won’t tell you how to work with CSS, but they will help you acquire CSS experience with more intermediate CSS properties. 
• CodePen. CodePen offers CSS challenges for you to do online. You can share solutions with others who have participated, receive feedback, and view others’ code for learning insights.  
• Frontend Mentor. On this website, you can solve real-world HTML, CSS, and JavaScript challenges. There are over 280,000 developers building projects, reviewing code, and learning from each other. 

What’s the Best Way to Learn CSS?

One of the best ways you can learn CSS is through coding bootcamps. Coding bootcamps provide you with a well-structured, hands-on learning program that is recognized by employers in the industry. You can also enroll in an online course, watch video tutorials, or read books to learn CSS.

CSS Exercises FAQ