diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index bc25d5879..eedecadb4 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
         "fast-xml-parser": "^4.0.10",
         "frontend-components-tinymce-advanced-plugins": "^1.0.2",
         "lodash-es": "^4.17.21",
+        "lodash.flatten": "^4.4.0",
         "moment": "^2.29.4",
         "moment-shortformat": "^2.1.0",
         "react-dropzone": "^14.2.3",
@@ -17212,8 +17213,7 @@
     "node_modules/lodash.flatten": {
       "version": "4.4.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/lodash.flatten/-/lodash.flatten-4.4.0.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha512-C5N2Z3DgnnKr0LOpv/hKCgKdb7ZZwafIrsesve6lmzvZIRZRGaZ/l6Q8+2W7NaT+ZwO3fFlSCzCzrDCFdJfZ4g==",
-      "dev": true
+      "integrity": "sha512-C5N2Z3DgnnKr0LOpv/hKCgKdb7ZZwafIrsesve6lmzvZIRZRGaZ/l6Q8+2W7NaT+ZwO3fFlSCzCzrDCFdJfZ4g=="
     },
     "node_modules/lodash.flattendeep": {
       "version": "4.4.0",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 9f563d1ac..c55eeacc9 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@
     "fast-xml-parser": "^4.0.10",
     "frontend-components-tinymce-advanced-plugins": "^1.0.2",
     "lodash-es": "^4.17.21",
+    "lodash.flatten": "^4.4.0",
     "moment": "^2.29.4",
     "moment-shortformat": "^2.1.0",
     "react-dropzone": "^14.2.3",
diff --git a/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/ReactStateOLXParser.js b/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/ReactStateOLXParser.js
index b40971e7c..f320cdd82 100644
--- a/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/ReactStateOLXParser.js
+++ b/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/ReactStateOLXParser.js
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ import _ from 'lodash-es';
 import { XMLParser, XMLBuilder } from 'fast-xml-parser';
 import { ProblemTypeKeys } from '../../../data/constants/problem';
 import { ToleranceTypes } from '../components/EditProblemView/SettingsWidget/settingsComponents/Tolerance/constants';
+import { findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes } from './reactStateOLXHelpers';
+
+const HtmlBlockTags = ['p', 'h1', 'h2', 'h3', 'h4', 'h5', 'h6', 'div', 'pre', 'blockquote', 'ol', 'ul', 'li', 'dl', 'dt', 'dd', 'hr', 'table', 'thead', 'caption', 'tbody', 'tr', 'th', 'td', 'colgroup', 'col', 'address', 'fieldset', 'legend'];
 
 class ReactStateOLXParser {
   constructor(problemState) {
@@ -193,33 +196,29 @@ class ReactStateOLXParser {
 
   /** addQuestion()
    * The editorObject saved to the class constuctor is parsed for the attribute question. The question is parsed and
-   * checked for label and em tags. After the question is fully updated, the questionObject is returned.
-   * TODO: this is very brittle and unreliable. Needs improvement.
+   * checked for label tags. label tags are extracted from block-type tags like <p> or <h1>, and the block-type tag is
+   * deleted while label is kept. For example, <p><label>Question</label></p> becomes <label>Question</label>, while
+   * <p><span>Text</span></p> remains <p><span>Text</span></p>. The question is returned as an object representation.
    * @return {object} object representaion of question
    */
   addQuestion() {
     const { question } = this.editorObject;
-    const questionObject = this.richTextParser.parse(question);
-    /* Removes block tags like <p> or <h1> that surround the <label> or <em> format.
+    const questionObjectArray = this.richTextParser.parse(question);
+    /* Removes block tags like <p> or <h1> that surround the <label> format.
       Block tags are required by tinyMCE but have adverse effect on css in studio.
       */
-    const resultQuestion = [];
-    const relevantSubnodes = ['label', 'em'];
-
-    questionObject.forEach((tag) => {
-      const subNodes = Object.values(tag)[0];
-      const containsRelevantSubnodes = subNodes.some(subNode => relevantSubnodes.includes(Object.keys(subNode)[0]));
-
-      if (!containsRelevantSubnodes) {
-        resultQuestion.push(tag);
-      } else {
-        resultQuestion.push(...subNodes);
-      }
+    const result = findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes({
+      arrayOfNodes: questionObjectArray,
+      nodesToFind: ['label'],
+      parentsToRemove: HtmlBlockTags,
     });
 
-    return resultQuestion;
+    return result;
   }
 
+  // findNodesWithChildTags(nodes, tagNames, recursive=false) {
+  //   const result = [];
+
   /** buildMultiSelectProblem()
    * OLX builder for multiple choice, checkbox, and dropdown problems. The question
    * builder has a different format than the other parts (demand hint, answers, and
diff --git a/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/reactStateOLXHelpers.js b/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/reactStateOLXHelpers.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4a0502f33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/reactStateOLXHelpers.js
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+/* eslint-disable import/prefer-default-export */
+
+import flatten from 'lodash.flatten';
+
+/**
+ * flattenSubNodes - appends a nodes children to a given array 'subNodes' in a flattened format.
+ * Only appends direct children unless `recursive` is set to true.
+ * @param {object} node
+ * @param {object[]} subNodes
+ * @param {object} options - { recursive: false } Whether to search recursively for child tags.
+ * @returns {void}
+ */
+function flattenSubNodes(node, subNodes, options = { recursive: false }) {
+  const values = Array.isArray(node) ? (
+    flatten(node.map(n => Object.values(n)))
+  ) : Object.values(node);
+
+  values.forEach(value => {
+    if (Array.isArray(value)) {
+      subNodes.push(...value);
+
+      if (options.recursive) {
+        value.forEach(nestedNode => {
+          flattenSubNodes(nestedNode, subNodes, options);
+        });
+      }
+    }
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * function nodeContainsChildTags - checks whether a node contains any subnodes with the specified tag names.
+ *
+ * @param {object} node - Example for node:
+ *   {"div":
+ *     [
+ *       {"label":
+ *         [
+ *           {"#text":"def"}
+ *         ]
+ *       },
+ *       {"div":
+ *         [{
+ *           label:
+ *             [
+ *               { '#text': 'def' },
+ *             ],
+ *         }],
+ *       },
+ *       {"#text":" "},
+ *       {"em":
+ *         [
+ *           {"#text":"ghi"}
+ *         ],
+ *         ":@": {"@_class":"olx_description"}
+ *       },
+ *       {"em":
+ *         [
+ *           {"#text":"jkl"}
+ *         ]
+ *       }
+ *     ]
+ *   }
+ * @param {string[]} tagNames
+ * @param {boolean} [recursive=false] - Whether to search recursively for child tags.
+ *
+ * @returns {boolean} whether node contains the specified child tags
+ */
+export function nodeContainsChildTags(node, tagNames, options = { recursive: false }) {
+  const subNodes = [];
+  flattenSubNodes(node, subNodes, options);
+  const res = subNodes.some(subNode => tagNames.includes(Object.keys(subNode)[0]));
+  return res;
+}
+
+/**
+ * @param {object} node
+ * @returns {string} the tag name of the node
+ */
+export function tagName(node) {
+  if (Array.isArray(node)) {
+    throw new TypeError('function tagName does not accept arrays as input');
+  }
+  return Object.keys(node).find(key => key.match(/^[a-zA-Z].*/));
+}
+
+/**
+ * findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes - given 'arrayOfNodes', an array that results from the
+ * XMLParser, this looks for 'nodesToFind': specific child tags (e.g. 'label'), and removes
+ * their parent tags (e.g. 'div') but keeps all their content one level higher.
+ * The 'parentsToRemove' array should contain a list of parent tags that will be removed.
+ *
+ * For example, if you have a div containing a p that contains a label and an em, and you specify
+ * 'label' as the nodeToFind and 'p' as the parentToRemove, then you will get a div containing a label and an em.
+ * @param {object} { arrayOfNodes, nodesToFind, parentsToRemove }
+ *
+ * @returns {object} - an array of nodes
+ */
+export function findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes({
+  arrayOfNodes,
+  nodesToFind,
+  parentsToRemove,
+}) {
+  const result = [];
+  arrayOfNodes.forEach((node) => {
+    const containsRelevantSubnodes = nodeContainsChildTags(node, nodesToFind);
+
+    if (!containsRelevantSubnodes || !parentsToRemove.includes(tagName(node))) {
+      result.push(node);
+    } else {
+      const subNodes = Object.values(node)[0];
+      result.push(...subNodes);
+    }
+  });
+  return result;
+}
diff --git a/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/reactStateOLXHelpers.test.js b/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/reactStateOLXHelpers.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab5b31c1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/editors/containers/ProblemEditor/data/reactStateOLXHelpers.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,182 @@
+import { nodeContainsChildTags, findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes, tagName } from './reactStateOLXHelpers';
+
+describe('reactStateOLXHelpers', () => {
+  describe('findNodesWithChildTags', () => {
+    const node = {
+      div:
+       [
+         {
+           label:
+           [
+             { '#text': 'def' },
+           ],
+         },
+         { '#text': ' ' },
+         {
+           em:
+           [
+             { '#text': 'ghi' },
+           ],
+           ':@': { '@_class': 'olx_description' },
+         },
+         {
+           em:
+           [
+             { '#text': 'jkl' },
+           ],
+         },
+       ],
+    };
+
+    const nodeWithNestedLabel = {
+      div:
+       [
+         {
+           div:
+           [{
+             label:
+            [
+              { '#text': 'def' },
+            ],
+           }],
+         },
+         { '#text': ' ' },
+         {
+           em:
+           [
+             { '#text': 'ghi' },
+           ],
+           ':@': { '@_class': 'olx_description' },
+         },
+         {
+           em:
+           [
+             { '#text': 'jkl' },
+           ],
+         },
+       ],
+    };
+
+    it('should return true if node contains specified child tags', () => {
+      const received = nodeContainsChildTags(node, ['p', 'label']);
+      expect(received).toEqual(true);
+    });
+
+    it('should return false if node does not contain child tags', () => {
+      const received = nodeContainsChildTags(node, ['p', 'span']);
+      expect(received).toEqual(false);
+    });
+
+    it('should return true if node contains specified nested child tags and recursive is true', () => {
+      const received = nodeContainsChildTags(nodeWithNestedLabel, ['p', 'label'], { recursive: true });
+      expect(received).toEqual(true);
+    });
+
+    it('should return false if node contains specified nested child tags and recursive is not set', () => {
+      const received = nodeContainsChildTags(nodeWithNestedLabel, ['p', 'label']);
+      expect(received).toEqual(false);
+    });
+
+    it('should handle arrays somehow, in case there is an edge case where it is passed', () => {
+      const received = nodeContainsChildTags([nodeWithNestedLabel, node], ['p', 'label'], { recursive: true });
+      expect(received).toEqual(true);
+    });
+  });
+
+  describe('findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes', () => {
+    const exampleQuestionObject = [
+      {
+        p: [{
+          '#text': 'abc',
+        }],
+      },
+      {
+        div:
+        [
+          {
+            label:
+            [{ '#text': 'def' }],
+          },
+          { '#text': ' ' },
+          {
+            em:
+            [{
+              '#text': 'ghi',
+            }],
+            ':@': { '@_class': 'olx_description' },
+          },
+          { em: [{ '#text': 'Just a generic em tag' }] },
+        ],
+      },
+    ];
+
+    const questionObjectWithoutDiv = [
+      {
+        p: [{
+          '#text': 'abc',
+        }],
+      },
+      {
+        label: [{ '#text': 'def' }],
+      },
+      { '#text': ' ' },
+      {
+        em:
+            [{
+              '#text': 'ghi',
+            }],
+        ':@': { '@_class': 'olx_description' },
+      },
+      { em: [{ '#text': 'Just a generic em tag' }] },
+    ];
+
+    it('should remove parent nodes of specified child tags', () => {
+      expect(findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes({
+        arrayOfNodes: exampleQuestionObject,
+        nodesToFind: ['label'],
+        parentsToRemove: ['div'],
+      })).toEqual(questionObjectWithoutDiv);
+    });
+
+    it('should not remove anything unless specified in "parentsToRemove"', () => {
+      expect(findNodesAndRemoveTheirParentNodes({
+        arrayOfNodes: exampleQuestionObject,
+        nodesToFind: ['label'],
+        parentsToRemove: ['span'],
+      })).toEqual(exampleQuestionObject);
+    });
+  });
+
+  describe('tagName', () => {
+    it('should return the tag name of the node', () => {
+      expect(tagName({
+        p: [{
+          '#text': 'abc',
+        }],
+      })).toEqual('p');
+    });
+
+    it('should throw an error if the node is an array', () => {
+      expect(() => tagName([])).toThrow(TypeError);
+    });
+
+    it('should return undefined if the node is text-only', () => {
+      expect(tagName({ '#text': 'abc' })).toEqual(undefined);
+    });
+
+    it('should return undefined if the node is an empty object', () => {
+      expect(tagName({})).toEqual(undefined);
+    });
+
+    it('should return correct tagName if the node has text and class properties as well', () => {
+      expect(tagName({
+        ':@': { '@_class': 'olx_description' },
+        '#text': 'abc',
+        em:
+            [{
+              '#text': 'ghi',
+            }],
+      })).toEqual('em');
+    });
+  });
+});