What is CSS nesting?

Learn the native CSS nesting syntax.

What is CSS nesting?

CSS nesting places one selector inside the curly braces of another. The browser treats the inner block as a descendant of the outer selector. So .card { h2 { color: navy; } } means the same as .card h2 { color: navy; }.

This structure may feel familiar from preprocessors like Sass; it now works in plain CSS. An element's own styles, its children and its pseudo-classes sit in a single block; the stylesheet mirrors the HTML structure.

Why use nesting?

Without nesting, a component's styles scatter across the file: .card, .card h2, .card p each on its own line. With nesting they all sit inside the .card block.

The stylesheet mirrors the HTML structure and stays easier to maintain. BEM names like .card__title from Sass are less needed; .card { .title { } } is enough.

Descendant combinator by default

When you nest, the browser joins the inner selector to the outer one with the descendant combinator. So nav { a { color: navy; } } becomes nav a { color: navy; }; it catches every a inside nav.

The inner element does not have to be a direct child; a deeper descendant also matches. The > combinator for direct children is covered in a later lesson.

Exercise Set a color for nested p

Add a p selector inside the .card block and assign color: navy. The outer block already exists; write only the inner p block.

Show example solution

navy; in it.
Example solution:
/* add p inside .card */
.card {
  padding: 1rem;
  p {
    color: navy;
  }
}

Test yourself

Which snippet shows valid nesting?
- .card { color: navy; }
- .card { h2 { color: navy; } }
- .card h2; { color: navy; }
- card h2 { color: navy; }
Show answer

.card { h2 { color: navy; } } — Correct. The h2 selector sits in its own curly block inside .card; the browser resolves it as .card h2.

Write the inner selector

.card {
  ____ {
    color: navy;
  }
}

Show answer

.card {
  h2 {
    color: navy;
  }
}

Next lesson: & nesting selector

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