HSK Levels Explained: Complete Guide to All 9 Levels in 2026

If you've spent any time researching how to learn Chinese, you've almost certainly come across the term "HSK." And if you've tried to figure out what the HSK levels actually mean, you've probably noticed that the information out there doesn't always agree. Some sites list six levels. Others list nine. The vocabulary numbers seem to change depending on who you ask.

Here's the short version: the HSK, or 汉语水平考试 (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì), is China's official standardized test of Mandarin proficiency for non-native speakers. Think of it as the Chinese equivalent of the TOEFL or IELTS for English. And in 2026, the system is in the middle of a major transition — which is exactly why so much conflicting information is floating around online.

This guide cuts through the confusion. We'll walk you through every HSK level — what it tests, what it means in practical terms, how long it takes to reach, and which level is right for your goals — using the most current official data available, including the revised November 2025 syllabus that many guides still haven't caught up with.

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01 What Is the HSK?

The HSK, short for 汉语水平考试 (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì, or "Chinese Proficiency Test"), is the only standardized Mandarin proficiency exam officially recognized by China's Ministry of Education. It is administered worldwide by Chinese Testing International (CTI) and has been taken by tens of millions of test-takers across more than 120 countries since its inception in the 1980s.

You might need an HSK score for any of the following reasons:

• University admission: Most Chinese universities require HSK 4 or above for degree programs taught in Mandarin. If you're planning to study abroad in China, this is likely the benchmark you'll be working toward.
• Scholarships: Chinese government scholarships (CSC) and many institutional scholarships require a minimum HSK score as part of the application.
• Employment: Companies operating in China or doing business with Chinese partners often prefer — or require — HSK certification from candidates.
• Visa and residency: Certain visa categories and permanent residency applications in China may accept HSK scores as evidence of language ability.
• Personal benchmarking: Even if no institution requires it, many learners use the HSK to set goals and measure their progress — it provides a clear ladder to climb.

02 HSK Levels Explained: The 2026 Structure

The HSK system has evolved through three major versions. From 1992 to 2009, the original HSK (sometimes called "HSK 1.0") used an 11-rank structure. In 2010, it was streamlined to six levels (HSK 2.0) — the system most current learners are familiar with. And since 2021, China has been rolling out a completely revised nine-level framework known as HSK 3.0.

Here is what you need to know about the transition: the HSK 2.0 (six-level) exams remain available through mid-2026. Starting in July 2026, the new HSK 3.0 system takes over fully. The first global trial exams under the new system were administered on January 31, 2026. For a deeper look at what changed and why, see our detailed guide to the new HSK 3.0.

The new system organizes nine levels into three stages:

• Elementary (初等, chūděng): HSK 1, 2, 3
• Intermediate (中等, zhōngděng): HSK 4, 5, 6
• Advanced (高等, gāoděng): HSK 7, 8, 9 (administered as a single exam, with your score determining which level you achieve)

03 Vocabulary, Character, and Grammar Requirements by Level

The table below shows the cumulative requirements for each HSK 3.0 level based on the official November 2025 syllabus. "Cumulative" means each level includes all the vocabulary and characters from the levels below it — HSK 3's 1,000 words, for example, includes the 500 words from HSK 2, which in turn includes the 300 from HSK 1.

A few important notes about these numbers. First, handwriting is only required from HSK 5 onward. At Levels 1–4, you only need to recognize characters — you don't need to write them from memory. This is a significant change from the old system and makes the lower levels more accessible for beginners who are still building their Chinese character knowledge.

Second, the new syllabus has made a deliberate effort to include modern vocabulary. Words like 人工智能 (réngōng zhìnéng, artificial intelligence), 扫码 (sǎomǎ, scan a QR code), 主播 (zhǔbō, livestreamer), and 电商 (diànshāng, e-commerce) now appear in the official word lists — a reflection of how Chinese is actually used in daily life today. For learners curious about how many characters they'll ultimately need, we break this down further in our guide to how many Chinese characters you need to learn.

04 What Can You Actually Do at Each HSK Level?

Vocabulary counts are useful for planning, but what most learners really want to know is: what will I actually be able to do? Here's a realistic breakdown by tier.

HSK 1–3: Survival to Daily Life

At HSK 1 (300 words), you can handle the absolute basics — greeting people, introducing yourself, ordering food by pointing and naming, asking "how much?" (多少钱, duōshao qián), and understanding simple directions. You'll recognize common signs and menu items. This is tourist-level Chinese, but it's genuinely useful tourist-level Chinese.

By HSK 2 (500 words), you can manage simple everyday transactions: shopping, taking taxis, making basic small talk, and talking about your daily routine. You can send and understand short text messages in Chinese.

At HSK 3 (1,000 words), things start to feel more real. You can hold casual conversations with native speakers (at a slower pace), read restaurant menus without pictures, send WeChat messages that go beyond "hello" and "thank you," and handle most daily-life situations on your own. For expats living in China, HSK 3 is often where the city starts to feel less foreign. If you're just getting started, building a foundation in pinyin is essential for reaching this stage efficiently.

HSK 4–6: Professional to Advanced

HSK 4 (2,000 words) is a pivotal level. This is the standard benchmark for admission to Chinese university programs and the point at which many employers consider your Chinese "functional." You can write professional emails, participate in meetings (following most of the conversation, if not every word), read news headlines and short articles, and express opinions on a range of topics. If you're considering a study abroad program in China, HSK 4 is typically the target to aim for.

At HSK 5 (3,600 words), you can give presentations in Chinese, write reports, watch Chinese movies and TV shows with reasonable comprehension (though you'll still miss plenty), and read longer articles or short stories. Professional work in Chinese becomes genuinely possible. For ideas on building listening comprehension at this stage, see our guide to Chinese TV shows for language learners.

HSK 6 (5,400 words) puts you in the territory of academic fluency. You can participate in formal debates, negotiate business deals, read Chinese literature, and express yourself with nuance and precision. Most professional careers conducted in Chinese — business, journalism, diplomacy — require this level or close to it.

HSK 7–9: Mastery

HSK 7–9 represents near-native to native-level mastery of Mandarin. At this stage, you can translate between Chinese and English at a professional level, write academic papers in Chinese, and handle any communicative situation with ease. The exam itself reflects this ambition: it's a single integrated test lasting 210 minutes that includes translation tasks and an oral defense component.

05 How Do HSK Levels Map to CEFR?

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) provides a standardized scale from A1 (beginner) to C2 (mastery) that's used across dozens of languages. Naturally, people want to know where their HSK level falls on this scale.

Under the old six-level HSK 2.0, Hanban (the exam's governing body) claimed a clean one-to-one mapping: HSK 1 = A1, HSK 2 = A2, and so on up to HSK 6 = C2. This mapping was widely criticized by European language associations, particularly in Germany and France, who argued that HSK 6 corresponded more realistically to B2 or C1 on the CEFR scale — not C2.

The new nine-level HSK 3.0 system is generally considered a more credible alignment:

That said, comparing Chinese to European languages through CEFR is inherently imperfect. Chinese has no cognates with English, uses a logographic writing system with thousands of characters, and has a tonal pronunciation system that has no parallel in European languages. A "B1" in Chinese represents a fundamentally different learning investment than a B1 in French or Spanish. The CEFR mapping is useful as a rough benchmark — just don't treat it as an exact conversion.

06 How Long Does It Take to Reach Each HSK Level?

This is the question every learner asks, and the honest answer is: it depends enormously on how you study. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI) classifies Mandarin as a Category IV "super-hard language" and estimates approximately 2,200 class hours to reach professional working proficiency — the equivalent of roughly HSK 6.

But that number assumes a particular study format. The table below provides more granular estimates across three common study contexts: casual self-study (3–5 hours per week), regular structured study with a tutor (1–2 hours per day), and intensive immersion (4–6 hours of instruction per day plus daily real-world practice).

The differences between columns are striking, and they're not accidental. Immersion — combining structured classroom instruction with daily real-world practice — is the single most powerful accelerator for language learning. Learners in an intensive Chinese immersion program in Guilin routinely compress what would take years of casual study into months, precisely because every hour outside the classroom reinforces what's taught inside it.

Regardless of your study format, consistency matters more than total hours. Thirty minutes every day will take you further than a five-hour weekend cram session. And at every stage, pairing study with real Chinese input — Chinese podcasts, TV shows, conversations with native speakers — accelerates the process considerably.

Ready to accelerate your Chinese?

Join CLI's Immersion Program in Guilin — personalized one-on-one instruction combined with daily real-world practice in the heart of southern China.

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07 HSK Test Format, Scoring, and Registration

Test Format and Scoring

The format of the HSK exam varies by level. Here's how it breaks down under the current system:

How to Register and What It Costs

Registering for the HSK is straightforward:

1. Go to the official registration website at chinesetest.cn
2. Create an account and select your test level, location, and preferred date
3. Pay the registration fee (approximately $20–60 USD depending on level and country)
4. Confirm your registration and prepare your admission ticket

Registration deadlines are typically 27–30 days before the test for paper-based exams and about 10 days for computer-based exams. Tests are offered roughly 11 times per year at authorized test centers worldwide. Results are usually available within 2–4 weeks, and HSK certificates are valid for two years when used for academic admission or visa purposes.

08 How to Prepare for the HSK: Strategies by Level

Beginner: HSK 1–3

At the beginner stage, your priority is building correct habits. Start with pinyin and tones — getting these right early prevents problems that become harder to fix later. Use flashcard apps like Anki for systematic vocabulary building, and supplement with graded readers to practice reading in context.

Structured instruction makes a real difference at this stage. A qualified teacher can catch pronunciation errors and grammatical misunderstandings before they become ingrained habits — something that's very difficult to do through self-study alone. Whether you learn Chinese online with 1-on-1 tutoring or in a classroom, the feedback loop of working with a teacher pays for itself many times over. For tips on how to pass the HSK 4 exam specifically, see our dedicated guide to passing HSK 4.

Intermediate: HSK 4–6

At the intermediate stage, the learning challenge shifts from memorization to active use. You know enough vocabulary to have conversations — the question is whether you can actually deploy it in real time. This is where immersion study becomes most impactful. Daily exposure to Chinese in authentic contexts (ordering food, chatting with neighbors, reading signs) forces your brain to move knowledge from passive recognition into active production.

Supplement your study with native content: Chinese news apps, social media, TV shows, and podcasts. Take mock exams regularly — the test format itself can be learned, and familiarity with question types will help your score even if your underlying ability stays the same. One-on-one tutoring is especially valuable for targeted writing feedback, which is the section most test-takers find hardest to improve independently. For HSK 6-specific strategies, see our guide to passing HSK 6.

Advanced: HSK 7–9

Preparing for HSK 7–9 is a qualitatively different challenge. At this stage, you're no longer learning Chinese — you're refining it. Preparation typically involves translation exercises between Chinese and English, reading academic texts and classical Chinese, formal debate and discussion practice, and building specialized vocabulary in your professional field.

This level of proficiency is very difficult to reach without extended periods living and working in a Chinese-speaking environment. The exam itself — a 210-minute integrated test that includes translation and an oral defense — demands the kind of deep fluency that only comes from years of sustained, immersive engagement with the language.

09 Which HSK Level Should You Aim For?

The right HSK level depends entirely on what you want to do with your Chinese. Here's a quick decision framework:

Whatever level you're working toward, remember that the HSK is a roadmap, not a finish line. Passing a test proves something about your knowledge — but using Chinese in the real world, day after day, is where the actual fluency lives. The certificate opens doors; what you do after walking through them is what matters.

If you're ready to take the next step, consider exploring CLI's immersion programs in Guilin or starting with a free trial lesson to see how structured 1-on-1 instruction can accelerate your progress toward your target HSK level.

10 HSK Vocabulary

The following table includes key Chinese terms referenced throughout this article.