# How the Browser Parses HTML

The browser reads your HTML file one character at a time, breaks it into tokens, builds a tree of nodes from them, and quietly repairs your mistakes along the way, so you can tell why a page shows what it shows.

![Codey's cheat sheet for How the Browser Parses HTML: The browser reads your HTML file one character at a time, breaks it into tokens, builds a tree of nodes from them, and quietly repairs your mistakes along the way, so you can tell why a page shows what it shows.](https://fsdtrainingmedia.blob.core.windows.net/public/images/2026/10/64faedc6536648f09fa4d775a0873b04.webp)

- Category: HTML
- Level: Freelancer
- Tags: DOM tree, html, HTML parser, Implied end tag, Parse error, Parser error recovery
- Updated: October 31, 2026

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/html-how-the-browser-parses-html-cheat-sheet