Specificity Interview Questions

Trace the specificity escalation spiral from the first failed override to an !important-saturated codebase, and compare the mechanisms that stop it.

Learn the Block Element Modifier convention, why flat single-class selectors keep specificity constant, and where BEM still applies in a component-framework world.

Walk the full cascade resolution order to see what decides a conflict once specificity ties, and why bundle order matters more than file order.

Learn how @layer creates explicit precedence buckets that outrank specificity, and how it ends the specificity escalation spiral.

Learn the three-column specificity calculation, where inline styles and !important sit in the cascade, and why specificity is only one tiebreaker among several.

Both flatten selector lists identically, but :is() takes the specificity of its most specific argument while :where() is always zero.