Chinese Level Test: What HSK Level Am I?

This free quiz estimates your Chinese level from the words you know. It shows you six words from each HSK level in turn, easiest first, and asks what each one means. It stops when the words get too hard, so a beginner is done in a couple of minutes and an advanced learner in about five. You get an HSK level, a rough count of the words you know, the CEFR levels that match, and where to start next.

How the Test Works

The words come from the official HSK word lists, the same ones Mandarin Mosaic’s lesson packs are built on. Levels 1 to 6 use the six-level HSK (HSK 2.0) that most courses and certificates still use, and the last round uses the advanced band of the new nine-level HSK, levels 7–9, leaving out any word that was already on the old lists.

• Six words per level. Each is shown in characters, and you pick its meaning from four choices. The wrong choices are other words from the same level, so you can’t rule them out by difficulty.
• Guessing is corrected for. With four choices, a random guess is right a quarter of the time. So every three wrong answers cancel out one right one, as they would if they were guesses. “I don’t know” costs nothing.
• It stops when it gets hard. The test ends after a level where you know under a quarter of the words, or after two levels in a row where you know under half.
• The score adds up the levels. Knowing all of HSK 1 and 2 and half of HSK 3 scores 2.5, which reads as “about HSK 2”. The advanced band counts as three levels. The word count multiplies the share of each level you knew by the size of its list: 150 words for HSK 1, rising to 2,500 for HSK 6 and about 4,000 for the advanced band. The band only counts once you know at least half of HSK 6, so a few lucky guesses at the top can’t lift a weaker result.

Six words is a small sample, so the result can be a level out either way. Take it twice and the words change. If the two results differ, the truth is usually between them.

Learned Chinese by ear? Turn on pinyin before you start. Without it, the test measures the words you can read in characters, which for many learners is well below the words they understand when they hear them.

Am I a Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced Learner?

There’s no single official answer, but the new HSK standard of 2021 groups its nine levels into three stages: elementary (levels 1–3), intermediate (4–6) and advanced (7–9) (Wikipedia’s HSK article). Most learners and teachers still talk in terms of the six-level HSK, and the labels the test gives are our own, based on it:

The cumulative word counts are the six-level HSK’s. So if you’ve been learning for a while and can follow everyday conversations but not much more, you’re probably around HSK 3, the step between basic and intermediate. That’s also where many learners stall: our post on the intermediate Chinese plateau covers why and what helps.

Your Result in HSK and CEFR Terms

The result gives two CEFR levels because there are two conversions in use, and they disagree by about two levels. When the six-level HSK was launched in 2010, its organisers said HSK 1–6 matched CEFR A1–C2. European teachers of Chinese disagreed, and put HSK 4 at about A2 and HSK 6 at about B2. The teachers’ figures are the more realistic guide to what you can do. Our post on HSK vs CEFR sets out both, with their sources and the new HSK levels.

What the Test Can’t Tell You

A word test is a quick, fair measure of one thing: how many words you recognise. It leaves out a lot.

• Recognising isn’t using. Picking the meaning of 准备 (zhǔnbèi, to prepare) from four choices is easier than saying it when you need it. Most learners can produce far fewer words than they recognise.
• Listening and speaking are separate skills. Plenty of learners read at HSK 4 and freeze in conversation, and others speak well but read very little. The CEFR treats each skill on its own for this reason.
• Grammar and reading speed don’t show up. Knowing every word in a sentence isn’t the same as following it at normal speed.

To check your speaking, try answering out loud with no time to prepare: what you did last weekend, why you’re learning Chinese, what you’d order at your favourite restaurant. Chunking Chinese, our sister app, does this with feedback: it gives you an English prompt to answer in spoken Mandarin, and highlights any character whose tone or sound was off. For an official result, the HSK and Taiwan’s TOCFL both publish sample papers, and our post on whether to take the HSK explains the exams.

How to Move Up a Level

Each HSK level roughly doubles the words of the one before, so the jump gets bigger as you go:

At 10 new words a day, kept up with reviews, HSK 3 to HSK 4 takes about two months and HSK 5 to HSK 6 most of a year. Our Chinese study plan turns that into weekly targets, and if you’re just starting, the HSK 1 vocabulary list has all 150 first words with example sentences. How many words you need to be fluent explains what each stage feels like.

Words stick best when you learn them in sentences rather than from a list. That’s how Mandarin Mosaic works. Its Lessons are HSK lesson packs for the six-level HSK and the new HSK, and each lesson is made of sentences with one new word where possible, with spaced repetition to bring each word back before you forget it. Your Vocabulary shows how much of each HSK level you know, and Stats charts an estimated HSK level from the words you’ve learned, worked out in a similar way to this test, so you can watch it rise without taking a test again.

Mandarin Mosaic is on iPhone and Android, with Simplified and Traditional characters. At the time of writing, Premium’s first month is free, and there’s a limited free plan. Get it on iOS or Android.

Frequently Asked Questions

What HSK level am I?

Take the test above for an estimate based on your vocabulary. As a quick rule of thumb, on the six-level HSK you’re HSK 1 at about 150 words, HSK 3 at 600 and HSK 4 at 1,200. The only official answer is an HSK result, and exam scores also depend on listening, reading speed and, on the new exam from level 3, speaking.

Is HSK 3 intermediate?

Not quite. HSK 3 (600 words) is usually seen as the top of the basic stage or the start of intermediate, and the new HSK counts level 3 as elementary. HSK 4 is the level most people mean by intermediate.

How many words do I need for HSK 4?

1,200 on the six-level HSK. The new HSK 4 is bigger: 2,000 words in the 2025 exam syllabus. Our HSK vs CEFR post has a table of both versions.

How accurate is this test?

It’s a quick estimate: six words per level can put you a level too high or too low, and it measures only reading vocabulary. Taking it twice and averaging the results helps. For a more precise count, mark the words you know in a full HSK word list, or let an app such as Mandarin Mosaic keep count as you learn.

Should I take the test with Simplified or Traditional characters?

Use the set you learn. The words are the same either way; only the characters change. If you learned Traditional in Taiwan, note that the HSK is a mainland exam, and TOCFL levels are the closer match for your course.

More Posts: