Name resolution
DNS Flow Visualizer
Follow the step-by-step lookup that turns a domain name into an IP address.
Recursive DNS lookup
Follow the question from your browser to the server that can answer it.
Browser checks cache
The browser and OS cache are checked before any network request leaves the device.
DNS is a chain of referrals. Most servers do not know the final answer, but they know which server should be asked next.
Quick practice
Pause on the TLD step. What does the TLD server return: the website IP, or the authoritative nameserver to ask next?