What Happens When You Type a URL in the Browser?

Every day we type URLs into our browser, without thinking much about what happens behind the scenes. But a surprising amount of technology is involved between pressing Enter and seeing a webpage appear. From DNS lookups to TCP connections and rendering HTML , several systems work together in milliseconds to deliver a webpage. Let’s walk through the complete journey step-by-step. 1. URL Parsing Suppose you type this into your browser: www.example.com The browser first breaks the URL into components . Component Meaning https Protocol example.com Domain name / Resource path The browser now understands: Which protocol to use Which server to contact Which resource is requested 2. Checking the Browser Cache Before making a network request, the browser checks whether it already has the requested resource stored in its cache . Modern browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox store previously loaded resources locally. If the cached version is valid: ✅ The page loads instantly ❌ No network