a:hover does not work, with bootstrap

Question

So for some reason, my hover CSS is not working. I am using bootstrap with some of their css. Is there something wrong with my code, or is it because bootstrap's code is overriding mine's?

HTML

<nav class="navbar navbar-default navbar-fixed-top">
  <div class="collapse navbar-collapse">
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav" role="tablist">
        <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">HTML</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">CSS</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">About</a></li>        
    </ul>
  </div>
</nav>

CSS

ul>li>a {
    color: black;
    padding: 15px;
}

ul>li>a:hover {
    background-color: #B0B0B0;
    color: red;
}

Answer 1

It's because the default Bootstrap styling is more specific.

These are the selectors that you need to override:

.navbar-default .navbar-nav>li>a:hover,
.navbar-default .navbar-nav>li>a:focus {
  color: #333;
  background-color: transparent;
}

Therefore you could use:

Working Example Here

.navbar-default .navbar-nav>li>a:hover {
  background-color: #B0B0B0;
  color: red;
}

Answer 2

Without seeing exactly whats going on, the issue you're having may be related to not specifying a class on your unordered list.

This may fix the problem:

ul.navbar-nav > li > a {
color:black;
padding: 15px;
}

ul.navbar-nav > li > a:hover {
    background-color: #B0B0B0;
    color:red;
}