HTML Memory Tested
My little HTML tags test really took off on Twitter. Leslie Cohn-Wein (@lesliecdubs), whose tweet started all this, retweeted me to her enthusiastic followers. Next, Manuel Matuzović (@mmatuzo AKA @HTM_Hell), mentioned it and I think it grew from there.
Reaction
It was unexpected seeing so many people sharing their scores and screen grabs of their ‘tags to recall’. I can see why people build games.
This was my favourite response (and good approach):
I started alphabetically, then randomly, then thematically, then desperately – Harry Roberts (@csswizardry)
The Pen has sailed into my top 3 popular pens on CodePen with 15,000+ views so far.
Sites Featured
HTML Tags Memory Test has featured in a number of different articles and newsletters:
- Some Redditors submitted it to /r/webdev/, /r/web_design/, and /r/frontend/ and views jumped 1,000 overnight.
- Mentioned in a user submitted post, Semantics what does it mean?, on fronteers.nl (of conference fame) as part of their 2020 advent calendar.
- University of Minnesota included it in its Information Technology Systems and Services course materials.
- Mentioned in UI Dev Newsletter (#36) on Dev.to
- Mentioned by The Loop, a blog I follow about all things Apple.
- Know your HTML on Accessabilly.
Updated:
- CSS-Tricks newsletter at the bottom of #235, Subject: ’Animations Animations Animations!’
- Dev Awesome newsletter, issue #49.
- CSS Memory Test, a fork by Bram.us - only 650+ properties to recall!
- Element Diversity, Manuel Matuzovic lamenting inaccessible div-filled components use, instead of HTML elements.
- A short guide to help you pick the correct HTML tag by Jozsef Polgar.
- Featured behind door No.5 in the HTMHell Advent Calendar!
- ‘Lost in Translation’ talk (@ 9m30s) by Manuel Matuzović at Beyond Tellerrand, Smashing Conference Freiburg 2022 and Paris Web.
- A quiz on The Meaning of Web Accessibility: Accessible HTML & Assistive Technologies w/ Nic Steenhout on YouTube (~43min, 25sec)
- 10 HTML Elements You May Have Never Heard Of by Jennifer Grenier Diaz.
- Web Weekly #96 and again in Web Weekly #168, a newsletter by Stefan Judis.
- WeAreDevelopers Dev Digest, #97 in Procrastination Corner.
- Frontend Focus Issue #614. Subject line: ‘Test how many HTML tags you know.’
- Posted on Hacker News, reaching #19 on the front page and adding 20k+ more views to the pen.
- Featured in CodePen’s front-page picks.
- Pixels of the Week – September 21, 2025 by Stéphanie Walter
HTML Tags Recalled
Most pleasing, was the number of people mentioning discovering new HTML tags and elements they had forgotten or overlooked before. So the face-palming frustration of this game, may have some beneficial effect afterall.
It’s quite topical that HTML and it’s benefits be shown. There is a recent trend with some of the numerous JS frameworks and web components, where all markup is a <div> and we are losing any helpful semantics - a sentiment I saw in some of the tweets. Glad to help shining some light on HTML again.
Posted