---
title: "Seeing requests in the browser"
course: "BE101 · What runs behind a website"
unit: "How the web works"
lesson: 5 of 39
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/what-runs-behind-a-website/seeing-requests-in-the-browser
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Seeing requests in the browser

Lesson 5 of 39 in **What runs behind a website** (BE101), unit "How the web works". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Recognize DevTools as the browser's built-in tools for inspecting and understanding what a page is doing behind the scenes.
- Use the browser's Network tab to observe HTTP requests and responses, identifying the method, URL, status code, and response body.
- Categorize HTTP status codes by their meaning (2xx success, 3xx redirect, 4xx client error, 5xx server error) by observing real requests.

## Teaching notes
Guide the student to open DevTools in their Chrome browser and load a real website while watching the Network tab. Point out that different requests can return different kinds of response bodies, including HTML and JSON.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 5 complete: Seeing requests in the browser."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "HTML and JSON as response data" (lesson 6 of 39), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/what-runs-behind-a-website/html-and-json-as-response-data.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: HTTP requests and responses
Next lesson: HTML and JSON as response data