A deep dive into CSS specificity

CSS specificity is a fundamental concept that helps resolve conflicts when different style rules are applied to the same element, ensuring the style with the highest specificity is used. Specificity is determined by a hierarchy of selectors, with inline styles having the highest score, followed by ID selectors, class selectors, and element selectors. The specificity score is calculated based on the type and number of selectors, and the style with the highest score is applied unless overridden by the !important rule, which takes precedence regardless of specificity. Despite common misconceptions, the order of selectors in the cascade only matters when selectors have equal specificity scores, and proximity does not affect specificity. Understanding these principles allows developers to efficiently debug and manage CSS, ultimately enhancing their ability to specify which style rules are applied to elements and addressing development bugs more effectively.