How to make padding responsive

Question

I'm new to learning HTML and CSS and I really struggle with responsive design. I want to make my nav bar responsive and I think the best way is to edit the padding. If someone could give me some pointers I would really appreciate it.

.navbar-left {
  float: left;
  font-size: 16px;
  color: black;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 36px 29px;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
}

.navbar-center {
  float: left;
  font-size: 30px;
  color: black;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 27px 311px;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
}

.navbar-right {
  float: left;
  font-size: 16px;
  color: black;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 36px 29px;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
}

.navbar-left:hover,
.navbar-right:hover {
  background-color: #f8f8f8;
}

<nav>
  <a class="navbar-left" href="bio.html">About</a>
  <a class="navbar-left" href="resume.html">Resume</a>
</nav>

<nav>
  <a class="navbar-center" href="index.html">Sydnie Knowlton</a>
</nav>

<nav>
  <a class="navbar-right" href="works.html">Portfolio</a>
  <a class="navbar-right" href="contact.html">Contact</a>
</nav>

Answer 1

set the width your three nav to 33.33% and float them all to the left

don't rely on the side padding, use width:50% so the two links inside the nav fill all the space inside, and text-align:center to center the content

* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

nav {
  width: 33.33%;
  float: left;
}

.navbar-left {
  float: left;
  font-size: 16px;
  color: black;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 36px 2%;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
  width: 50%;
}

.navbar-center {
  float: left;
  font-size: 30px;
  color: black;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 27px 0;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
  text-align: center;
}

.navbar-right {
  float: right;
  font-size: 16px;
  color: black;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 36px 2%;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
  width: 50%;
}

.navbar-left:hover,
.navbar-right:hover {
  background-color: #f8f8f8;
}

<nav>
  <a class="navbar-left" href="bio.html">About</a>
  <a class="navbar-left" href="resume.html">Resume</a>
</nav>

<nav>
  <a class="navbar-center" href="index.html">Sydnie Knowlton</a>
</nav>

<nav>
  <a class="navbar-right" href="works.html">Portfolio</a>
  <a class="navbar-right" href="contact.html">Contact</a>
</nav>