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Digital · Guided lesson

Inventory resources before guessing speed

About 29 minutes · 7 reading + 22 practice and checks
Time includes reading, practice, and questions. Extra videos or further study are optional.
See this course’s project requirements

A before/after optimization record for a supplied local page, with resource-size accounting, reserved image dimensions, fewer blocking resources and repeatable browser measurements.

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • Deliver an inventory and measurement table separating bytes, requests, timing, and content checks.
  • Produce a delivered-image byte comparison and a preserved-content visual check.
  • Verify aspect-ratio reservation and responsive fit, with an appropriate vector/raster source explanation.
  • Produce a before/after CSS request-count and preserved-style comparison.
  • Retain five actual samples, a correctly calculated median, and an explicit timed-block boundary.
  • Deliver a measured, preserve-content before/after packet with performed and unavailable checks separated.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • The implementation or declared simulation follows the supplied contract and retains inspectable original inputs.
  • Normal, boundary and rejected cases are recorded with expected versus observed results.
  • The changed case has a correct explanation and does not rely on hidden state.
  • The project includes source, outputs, instructions and honest tool, privacy and verification limits.
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Before you begin

The idea in everyday life

Serve the supplied folder locally with python3 -m http.server 8765 --bind 127.0.0.1. Compare before.html and after.html. Both show the same original yellow-circle reference graphic and text; only resource packaging and image reservation change.

The idea

File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result.

Follow along

Inventory resources before guessing speed — original worked practice

File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result.

Serve the supplied folder locally with python3 -m http.server 8765 --bind 127.0.0.1. Compare before.html and after.html. Both show the same original yellow-circle reference graphic and text; only resource packaging and image reservation change.

  1. 1. Step 1

    Open before.html and read its three stylesheet links, large.svg reference, and deferred timing.js.

    You should see: The before page requests its selected local resources.

    File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result.

  2. 2. Step 2

    Run python3 test-performance.py and record the reported file-byte totals.

    You should see: Actual local byte totals and reduction are calculated from delivered files.

    File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result.

  3. 3. Step 3

    In browser developer tools open Network, disable cache while tools remain open, and reload before.html. Record actual requests/status/transfer fields.

    You should see: A browser network record separate from local bytes.

    File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result.

  4. 4. Step 4

    Create columns metric, method, before, after, and limitation for the final comparison.

    You should see: A performance measurement plan with distinct metrics.

    File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result.

Now change one thing

Uncompressed file bytes fall but browser caching changes between runs. Does that establish the byte change caused the elapsed-time change?

Your work

What to finish

Deliver an inventory and measurement table separating bytes, requests, timing, and content checks.

Common mistake

Watch for this

Calling a local byte reduction an observed real-phone speed improvement.

How can I tell I understand it?

Demonstrate the rule: File bytes, requests, elapsed loading, and layout movement measure different things. A smaller source file is evidence of a byte change, not a universal speed result. Use the supplied variant to distinguish a changed result from a broken implementation.

Try 3 questions

Quick knowledge check

Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.

Not yet passed

You’ll get an explanation for each answer. Signed in? Your results save to your account.

1What does test-performance.py measure for the two page bundles?
2Why record request status as well as timing?
3Which comparison condition should remain the same?
0 of 3 answeredApply the lesson to a short question, then review the explanation.
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Finish this lesson

Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.

Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.

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Sources and further reading

Explore the references behind this lesson.

developer.mozilla.org — Performance
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Relevant documented module/API behavior inspected during expansion authoring; actual execution evidence is recorded separately. No grant eligibility is established.

Access: Official page retrieved with the web reader on 2026-10-01. Documentation reading does not certify execution in every native tool or browser.

Reuse: Original local practice files, fictional data, worked examples and questions. Concepts paraphrased and linked; source exercises are not copied.

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