The Document Object Model, or the “DOM”, is an interface to web pages. It is essentially an API to the page, allowing programs to read and manipulate the page’s content, structure, and styles. Let’s break this down.
So what exactly is DOM and what does it do ?
The DOM is an object-based representation of the source HTML document. It has some differences, as we will see below, but it is essentially an attempt to convert the structure and content of the HTML document into an object model that can be used by various programs.
To further understand DOM, we need to take a look at how a website is built.
How a browser goes from a source HTML document to displaying a styled and interactive page in the viewport is called the “Critical Rendering Path”. This process can be broken down into 2 stages. The first stage involves the browser parsing the document to determine what will ultimately be rendered on the page, and the second stage involves the browser performing the render.

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