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CSS CSS - Beyond the Basics Understanding Flexbox and Multi-Column Layout Flexbox Challenge

Andrew Breslin
Andrew Breslin
10,177 Points

Why are these quizzes set up in such a way that there is no way to give up and simply ask for the correct answer?

I already tried what I thought was the correct answer. It was not. I made several other wrong guesses. Now I just want to know what the correct answer is. Why can't I just get the correct answer? Does someone think this is a good way to teach people? I don't think it is. It's immensely frustrating. Please change the way the quizzes work so that a frustrated student can just request the correct answer.

style.css
/* Complete the challenge by writing CSS below */

.nav, 
.main {

display: flex;

}

.nav {

display: flex;
flex-wrap:wrap;  

}

.nav li {

  -webkit-flex-grow: 1;
}

.primary {

  flex-order:1;
}
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Flexbox</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="page.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
    <ul class="nav">
        <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">About</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Articles</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
    <div class="main">
        <div class="secondary col">
            <h2>Secondary</h2>
            <p>
                Maecenas volutpat nisi vitae purus gravida, ac pulvinar enim venenatis. Fusce ac pharetra ipsum. Suspendisse potenti. Etiam placerat rhoncus mi id ornare.
            </p>
        </div>
        <div class="primary col">
            <h2>Primary</h2>
            <p>
                Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent id mollis neque. Phasellus rutrum iaculis ante, id tincidunt tellus pulvinar vitae. Maecenas sodales mollis nisi sit amet congue. 
            </p>
            <p>
                Duis pharetra, sem in dictum posuere, justo orci vestibulum arcu, vitae lobortis ipsum nibh sed dolor. Vestibulum sodales pulvinar risus vel fermentum. Nunc sit amet eros eget orci euismod imperdiet. Phasellus scelerisque orci non ipsum vestibulum non eleifend.
            </p>
        </div>
        <div class="tertiary col">
            <h2>Tertiary</h2>
            <p>
                Donec id ultrices diam. Praesent efficitur vulputate eros ac aliquam. Ut et libero ultricies, mattis velit sit amet, suscipit sem. Aenean dictum pellentesque tincidunt. 
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>
Andrew Breslin
Andrew Breslin
10,177 Points

Pardon my petulance. I recognize that making it too easy for the student to just get the answer will tend to make students lackadaisical and not try to really understand. I get that. But I strongly recommend some sort of functionality to allow a student to indicate that s/he doesn't know the answer and then to at least be informed of where in the video that answer is contained. It's feels like an enormous waste of time to sit through a video, the majority of which you understood fine when you just watched the entire thing a minute ago, just to try to pick up on the one thing you didn't fully digest. Thanks.

2 Answers

Hi Andrew,

I can definitely understand your frustration, but I don't know if that would be an ideal way to learn, it would be too tempting I think to quickly pass through challenges without really trying to grasp what was going on, and really I think the idea is to encourage members to come to the forum for assistance from other members so that everyone can learn together. Don't worry, other people face the same challenges and frustrations, it's all part of learning. With that said, you are very close in your answer:

/* Complete the challenge by writing CSS below */

.nav, 
.main {
  display: flex;
}

.nav {
  flex-wrap: wrap;
}

.nav li {
  flex-grow: 1;
}

.primary {
  -webkit-order: -1;
}

You'll see that you only made a couple of minor mistakes. First, display: flex only needs to be declared the one time in the rule for .nav and .main, so you can remove your second instance of it. Finally, it looks like the order was the only other mistake, using -1 moves it into the first position. You can read more about the order property here

Andrew Breslin
Andrew Breslin
10,177 Points

Thanks very much for your reply, and I again apologize for my petulance. I understand that it shouldn't be too easy for a student to just get the answer, that they will learn better if they face a challenge. But I think it would be helpful to incorporate something similar to what you've just done: a way by which the student can indicate that he requires a nudge in the right direction and be given some sort of link to a page that has the specific answer (as you did above) or be told that it is covered at such and such time on the video. That way the student still has to pay attention and learn the answer, but s/he can at least be pointed directly at the correct answer, and not have to re-watch the entire video looking for just one specific thing. A hint feature like that would be very helpful, I think. Thanks.

Andrew Breslin
Andrew Breslin
10,177 Points

Thanks again. I went through it again and this time it all went smoothly. I can see why you wouldn't want to make it too easy to just get the answer. I really appreciate the help.