By 2005, over 120 countries had participated as regular host sites and the tests had been taken around 100 million times (domestic ethnic minority candidates included).

The test aims to be a certificate of language proficiency for higher educational and professional purposes.

Test takers with outstanding results can win a scholarship for short-term language study in China.

The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China announced further details regarding HSK 3.0 on April 1, 2021.

[7] New practice materials for the intermediate and advanced levels are expected to be released in the third or fourth quarter of 2022.

[6] One of the main problems with the current HSK test is that it does not follow the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

The basic levels (roughly corresponding to CEFR A1/A2)[citation needed] should test from 500 to 2245 words, the intermediate levels (roughly corresponding to CEFR B1/B2)[citation needed] from 3245 to 5456 words, the advanced levels (roughly corresponding to CEFR C1/C2)[citation needed] from about 6000 to 11000 words.

[10] The previous format was introduced in 2010, with a philosophy of testing "comprehensive language and communication ability".

This oral test is also known as the HSKK or Chinese: 汉语水平口语考试; pinyin: Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǒuyǔ Kǎoshì.

[25] These examples are also available (together with the audio for the Listening Test) on the websites of the Confucius Institute at QUT[26] and HSK Academy.

A rank of between 3 and 8 was needed to enroll in a Chinese university, depending on the subject being studied.

Likewise, the Advanced test (高等HSK) covered ranks 9-11 (9级-11级), with scores below 9 not considered.

Aside from the written expressions portion (which requires writing of Chinese characters), these two tests were completely multiple-choice.