National associations select entries according to their own criteria but the ISU rules mandate that their athletes must have achieved the required minimum technical score at an international event prior to the World Championships in order to be eligible to contest this event.

Based on the results of the 2013 World Championships, each ISU member nation was allowed to send one to three entries per discipline.

[27] Olympic bronze medalists, Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy of Germany, took the lead in the pairs' short program, two points ahead of Canada's Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford, who edged Olympic silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova / Fedor Klimov of Russia by under a point.

The latter pair outscored fellow Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch for the bronze for the second year in a row.

Japan's Tatsuki Machida ranked first in the men's short program, with Spain's Javier Fernández and 2014 Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu in second and third respectively.

2014 European champions, Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte of Italy, took the lead, outscoring Canada's Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje by 0.5 and France's Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat by 1.5.