Freecodecamp: Tests passes even without any CSS

[vikramvi]

Please refer to https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/tests-passes-even-without-any-css/409817

Tell us what’s happening:

This exercise asks to create Survey form.
As per survey form; I’ve entered all the necessary HTML elements
After running the code in codepen all the tests are passed
Expected Result:

As user has not used any CSS, test must fail
As user is learning both HTML and CSS; user stories should include CSS as well
Your code so far

Your browser information:

User Agent is: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_13_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/83.0.4103.116 Safari/537.36.

Challenge: Build a Survey Form

https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/responsive-web-design/responsive-web-design-projects/build-a-survey-form

[Sky020]

Hello there,

I will leave this issue open for others to comment, but here is how I see it:

Firstly, the projects are there for users to practice _some_ of the topics taught in previous lessons. With emphasis on some, as (and this is seen in all of the projects continuing forward) the general idea is for the projects to become increasingly _difficult_, and, perhaps, expect more tools/techniques to be used. For example, the Frontend Libraries projects can all be completed without using _React_ or _Redux_, yet they are a large portion of the lessons. However, they are encouraged to be used to complete the projects, as are campers encouraged to use _"unnecessary"_ principles (CSS, design, or otherwise) to give their projects their unique _spin_.

Then, there is the fact that adding more user stories/tests to these projects, automatically causes thousands of previously submitted projects to fail the test cases. So, we would need to introduce a different kind of testing where the test-suite knows when to test a project that has been submitted prior a certain date.

Also, with the development of the new _project-based_ version of the curriculum, this kind of change will be made in any case.

Others are welcome to triage, and disagree. However, I assume a change like this will not be implemented.

[RandellDawson]

Then, there is the fact that adding more user stories/tests to these projects, automatically causes thousands of previously submitted projects to fail the test cases. So, we would need to introduce a different kind of testing where the test-suite knows when to test a project that has been submitted prior a certain date.

Technically, this could be handled with versioning the actual test CDN. When changes are introduced to the test scripts that would cause previously submitted projects to potentially fail any of the tests, then a new version is corrected an advertised to be used from a certain date on. Then, when someone submits the project, we dynamically insert the latest CDN into the code to validate it works. Then, we would record which CDN was used for each project successfully passed. This would allow us to go back to spot check any user's project with the correct CDN that would have been used at the time it was originally submitted (or resubmitted for that matter).

[lasjorg]

I don't think CSS is very relevant to this challenge project.

The main point is to use the form elements and attributes that are needed when creating an HTML form. And as said, to revisit some form related concepts previously taught in the curriculum.

[vikramvi]

I don't think CSS is very relevant to this challenge project.

Then how can new engineer is able to practice CSS learnt in the curriculum ?

I personally finding it hard to do exercise projects as CSS is not made mandatory

[Sky020]

@vikramvi , CSS is _mandatory_ in every other project. So, you will practice it then.

[vikramvi]

@vikramvi , CSS is _mandatory_ in every other project. So, you will practice it then.

All the 5 projects passes without any CSS, which other project did you mean ?

[RandellDawson]

All the 5 projects passes without any CSS, which other project did you mean ?

@vikramvi That is not true. The Tribute project requires you to use CSS to pass two tests. The Product Landing Page project requires you to use CSS to pass three tests. The Technical Documentation Page project requires you to use CSS to pass two tests. Finally, the Personal Portfolio project requires you to use CSS to pass 3 tests.

The only project that does not tests for using CSS is the Survey Form project.

[vikramvi]

All the 5 projects passes without any CSS, which other project did you mean ?

@vikramvi That is not true. The Tribute project requires you to use CSS to pass two tests. The Product Landing Page project requires you to use CSS to pass three tests. The Technical Documentation Page project requires you to use CSS to pass two tests. Finally, the Personal Portfolio project requires you to use CSS to pass 3 tests.

The only project that does not tests for using CSS is the Survey Form project.

Thanks for pointing out but that is bare minimal CSS.
IMHO after doing this course amount of HTML learnt is 10X compared to CSS which is 0.5X. We're team of 6 folks learning together and got similar feedback from others as well.

My sincere request was to add more complex CSS so that new learners of this technology gets loads of benefits while doing projects

[RandellDawson]

My sincere request was to add more complex CSS so that new learners of this technology gets loads of benefits while doing projects

@vikramvi Just to be clear, you are requesting more complex CSS requirements be added to the certification projects or to the curriculum challenges?

Adding more CSS requirements to the projects would start to restrict users' individual design expression and cause users' projects to start to all look the same. As far as the CSS curriculum is concerned, we strive to cover most of basics of CSS and some intermediate CSS topics and leave it to the students do further research on more advanced CSS topics. The FCC curriculum challenges are meant to get you started in each topic (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc...). We have many articles on our news where more advanced CSS topics can be found. Also, students can always inquire about more advanced CSS topics on our forum.

[vikramvi]

My sincere request was to add more complex CSS so that new learners of this technology gets loads of benefits while doing projects

@vikramvi Just to be clear, you are requesting more complex CSS requirements be added to the certification projects or to the curriculum challenges?

curriculum projects I meant; the final projects ( end of the curriculum ) doesn't really teach which, how, when, what of CSS ( CSS property ) to be used.

I agree that CSS is more like adding extra spices to the dish; but atleast teach new students what are basic CSS to be used through project.

ATM after struggling with CSS like hell; I'm looking at sample projects; re-doing it myself and trying to understand which, how, when, what of CSS ( CSS property )

This is not only from me but 5 other students who are learning along with me

[nhcarrigan]

I am in agreement with Randell, here, that adding additional CSS requirements would restrict the individuality and personalisation of a user's project.

[RandellDawson]

@nhcarrigan Recently, we had some discussions where we might start adding more slight restrictions to validate users know how to implement certain CSS syntax. The goal will be to try to allow a variety of options that must be included to still allow creativity. We will have some more discussions about this in the near future.