Test recognition from everyday Hanzi to rare characters and get an honest estimate—not a made-up HSK score.
Choose the closest common English meaning for characters that move from familiar to rare. Pinyin appears only after you answer, so it cannot give away the character.
The test samples 30 simplified Chinese characters across six 500-rank bands. The bands use character-frequency ranks from SUBTLEX-CH, a research dataset derived from 46.8 million characters in film and television subtitles. Options are reshuffled for every test.
A short sample cannot test every Hanzi you know, and a subtitle corpus favors conversational media language. The result therefore uses a broad screening range of roughly ±500 characters. Reading words in context, remembering pronunciation, and writing characters from memory are different abilities.
Pinyin stays hidden while you choose, so pronunciation cannot reveal the answer.
Select the closest common English meaning, or use “Not sure” instead of guessing.
See a broad estimate and your score in every 500-rank character-frequency band.
This test gives a screening estimate of how many simplified Chinese characters you can recognise. It samples five characters from each of six 500-rank SUBTLEX-CH frequency bands, then adjusts the score for the chance of guessing. The deliberately broad result range is more honest than an exact-looking count.
Here, knowing means recognising an isolated character and choosing one of its common meanings. Pronouncing, handwriting, and using the character inside words are separate skills, so one number cannot describe your entire Chinese level.
No. HSK tests vocabulary, grammar, listening, reading, and other language skills. This free tool measures only sampled character recognition and does not convert the result into an official HSK level.
There is no single threshold. Reading also depends on the words those characters form, grammar, topic, and context. Knowing more high-frequency characters helps, but graded stories are a better way to test whether you can follow complete Chinese sentences.
The current test uses simplified Chinese characters. Some tested characters have the same form in traditional Chinese, but the result is intended for learners reading simplified Chinese.
No. The test runs in your browser, needs no account, and does not send your individual answers to Shanhai Story.
Try complete graded Chinese sentences with pinyin, natural audio, English translation, and comprehension questions.