The Olympic qualification period was between 2 May 2011 and 29 April 2012, and the Badminton World Federation rankings list, published on 3 May 2012, was used to allocate spots.
For each male player who qualifies in more than one discipline, an additional quota place in the Men's Singles becomes free.
[2] The main qualifying criterion was the BWF Ranking list as of May 3, 2012.
If this was not satisfied by the entry selection method described above, the highest ranking player/pair was qualified.
If there was no player/pair in the rankings, the winner of the most recently contested Continental Championship was qualified.