Her father, Farhat Mustafin, a Volga Tatar born in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Mishar village Bolshoye Rybushkino, was a bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and her mother, Yelena Kuznetsova, an ethnic Russian, is a physics teacher.

[12] At the 2008 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Mustafina helped the Russian junior team finish in first place and won the silver medal in the individual all-around with a score of 60.300.

[19] In December, she won the all-around at the Gymnasiade competition in Doha, Qatar, with a score of 57.350,[20] and went on to place second on vault (13.900), first on uneven bars (14.825), first on balance beam (14.175), and first on floor (14.575).

[29] Andy Thornton wrote for Universal Sports:[30] The story behind Aliya Mustafina's all-around gold today is that of a revived dynasty; the dominant Soviet women's team of the 1980s and early 1990s—whom many consider to represent the absolute epitome of artistic gymnastics—was dead and now reborn.

In addition to leading her teammates to their country's first world title as an independent nation, Mustafina has delivered one of the great performances by a female gymnast ever—capturing the very same artistry, difficulty, and competitive composure that made her Soviet predecessors so beloved and revered.

Mustafina's four-event arsenal is so well balanced it's hard to pick a favorite event to watch her on, and a win so convincing and undeniable as hers gives a satisfying sense of closure to a competition.

She finished in a controversial second to American Jordyn Wieber, with an all-around score of 59.831, after leading for three-quarters of the competition but falling on floor exercise, the last event.

[37] In August, after the Russian team was announced for the 2011 World Championships, Rodionenko said: "Aliya really wanted to go to Worlds—her heart and soul are literally crying, 'I can do it!

[43] In May, at the 2012 European Championships in Brussels, she contributed scores of 15.166 on vault, 15.833 on uneven bars, and 13.933 on floor toward the Russian team's second-place finish.

[50] On 15 August, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Mustafina the Order of Friendship at a special ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow.

[53] Mustafina went on to win the uneven bars final with a score of 16.133,[54] ending Russia's 12-year gold medal drought in Olympic gymnastics.

[58] At the 2013 Russian national championships, Mustafina successfully defended her all-around title with a score of 59.850, earning a 15.450 on beam, 15.500 on bars, 13.600 on floor, and 15.300 on vault.

She received a silver medal with the Moscow Central team and finished third in the uneven bars final, behind Anastasia Grishina and Tatiana Nabieva.

[61] At the 2013 European Championships in Moscow, she fell twice off the balance beam in qualifications and entered the all-around final in fourth place, with a score of 56.057.

[62] In the final, she scored 15.033 on vault, 15.133 on uneven bars, 14.400 on balance beam, and 14.466 on floor, winning the all-around title—her first individual European title—with a total of 59.032.

[66] In July, Mustafina competed at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia, alongside teammates Nabieva, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Paseka, and Anna Dementyeva.

In the team competition, which also served as a qualification round for the individual finals, Mustafina contributed scores of 13.750 on floor, 14.950 on vault, 15.000 on uneven bars, and 15.200 on beam[67] toward Russia's first-place finish.

In qualifications, she fell on her first tumbling pass on floor (two whips into a double Arabian) and crashed her second vault (round-off, half-on, full twist off), causing her to miss the finals in both events.

In the all-around final, she finished third with a total of 58.856 (14.891 on vault, 15.233 on uneven bars, 14.166 on balance beam, and 14.566 on floor),[75] behind Simone Biles and Kyla Ross of the United States.

[76] On 3 April, Mustafina successfully defended her Russian national all-around title, scoring 14.733 for a double-twisting Yurchenko vault, 14.333 on uneven bars, 15.400 on balance beam, and 15.100 on floor exercise.

At the Russian Cup in Penza in August, Mustafina represented Moscow alongside Paseka, Alla Sosnitskaya, and Daria Spiridonova, and they easily won the team title by five points over silver medalist Saint Petersburg.

At the end of the meet, she was selected—along with Paseka, Sosnitskaya, Spiridonova, Maria Kharenkova, and Ekaterina Kramarenko—to represent Russia at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China.

In the all-around final, she finished fourth with a total score of 57.915, performing well on vault and bars but making mistakes on beam and floor.

[82] At the Stuttgart World Cup in late 2014, Mustafina fell on uneven bars and balance beam and made several errors on floor exercise, causing her to finish fifth.

[93] At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Mustafina qualified to the all-around final with a total of 58.098, despite a fall on the balance beam.

[95] Two days later, Mustafina competed in the individual all-around final and scored 58.665 (15.200 on vault, 15.666 on uneven bars, 13.866 on balance beam, and 13.933 on floor).

On the first day of competition, she earned a gold medal with the Moscow team and qualified to the all-around, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise finals.

[102] On September 29, Mustafina was named on the nominative team to compete at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar alongside Lilia Akhaimova, Irina Alexeeva, Melnikova, and Simakova.

After a winning in Birmingham, Mustafina was named to the team to compete at the 2019 European Championships, replacing national champion Simakova who had inconsistent performances in Stuttgart earlier in the month.

[119] While in attendance at the Russian Cup, Mustafina announced that she would not be competing at the 2019 World Championships, opting to physically and mentally rest and start the 2020 season with "a brand new energy".