How to align differently a specific <div> in flexbox?

Question

I use flexbox for my layout and after completing Flexbox Froggy I tried to get the following alignment:

My thinking is the following:

• the boxes (<div>) need to flow in a column: flex-direction: column;
• they are aligned top-down: align-content: flex-start;
• one specific box aligns itself to the bottom: align-self: flex-end;

This leads to the HTML code below (also available on JSFiddle)

<div class="container">
  <div class="box1">
    box 1
  </div>
  <div class="box2">
    box 2
  </div>
  <div class="box3">
    box 3
  </div>
</div>

with the CSS

.container {
  display: flex; 
  flex-direction: column;
  align-content: flex-start;
}
.box3 {
  align-self: flex-end;
}

But it does not work - it looks like to third box is pushed (flex-end) to the right and not to the bottom.

My understanding was that align-self handles an exception relative to the container ("the container aligns everything from the top, but I, myself, will align to the bottom"). Isn't that so?

Answer 1

You don't need to use align-self, you can do this with margin-auto.

Flexbox's Best-kept secret

W3C Spec: Auto Margins

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-content: flex-start;
  height: 150px;
  border:1px solid grey;
}
.box3 {
  margin-top: auto;
  background:lightgreen;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="box1">
    box 1
  </div>
  <div class="box2">
    box 2
  </div>
  <div class="box3">
    box 3
  </div>
</div>