About this site
WordSwing HSK is a free study site for the HSK, the Chinese proficiency test run by Chinese Testing International (CTI). It is made by WordSwing, a language-learning app. It is not an official HSK site, and it is not connected with CTI. Everything here is free to use without an account.
Where the exam facts come from
Test formats, dates, deadlines and rules come from CTI’s own documents: its website, notices and test calendar, the official sample papers, and the 2025 HSK syllabus. Pages that state exam facts list their sources at the bottom. Where CTI has not published something yet, such as pass marks for the new HSK 1–6, we say so rather than guess. Exam facts were last checked on 2026-10-20.
The official documents we rely on most:
- HSK 3.0 will be officially launched worldwide on December 13, 2026!, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- Chinese Test Dates in 2026, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- HSK 考试大纲 (HSK Test Syllabus), released November 2025, Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC)
- HSK 3.0 sample papers, answer keys and audio (levels 1–9, speaking 3–6), Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- HSK (levels 1–6) sample papers, six-level format, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- HSK 3.0 考试能力描述 (competency profile), Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- HSK test overview, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- HSK (Level 4) test page: structure, scoring and validity, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- Exams information for candidates, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
- HSK 3.0 computer-based test demo, Chinese Testing International (CTI)
Advice on how to study, such as how long a level takes or how to balance reading and listening, is our own guidance. We label estimates as estimates.
The word lists
The 11,000 words, their levels, pinyin and parts of speech, and the character lists are taken from the 2025 HSK syllabus. English meanings for HSK 1–4 were written by WordSwing for learners. Meanings for higher levels come from CC-CEDICT, shortened for readability. The old HSK 2.0 lists are kept for comparison.
How the practice material is made
- Practice tests are original. CTI does not release past papers, so we write our own questions to match the parts, question counts and timings of the official HSK 3.0 sample papers.
- Every Chinese sentence is checked against the word list. Test questions, grammar examples, stories and writing samples are run through a program that splits them into words and flags any word above the level. From HSK 5, a few words from the next level are allowed, as on the real papers.
- Audio is generated with text-to-speech in standard Mandarin, using several voices for dialogues. It is clear and accurate, but it is not a recording of real speakers; listen to native speech as well.
- Pinyin on practice items is generated from the word list, with the usual tone changes for 一 and 不.
If you spot a mistake in a question, an explanation or a sentence, please tell us. Corrections from teachers and native speakers are especially welcome.
Your data
Practice results, mistake lists, known-word marks and writing drafts are saved in your browser, not in an account. We use PostHog analytics to see which pages and tools are used, so we know what to improve.
Licences and credits
- CC-CEDICT (MDBG and contributors), used for English meanings above HSK 4, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Our word list downloads that include these meanings are shared under the same licence.
- Hanzi Writer by David Chanin (MIT licence) for stroke-order animation, with stroke data from Make Me a Hanzi, derived from fonts by Arphic Technology and distributed under the Arphic Public License.
- Noto Emoji by Google, used for the pictures in practice questions, under the Apache License 2.0.
- Speech audio generated with Inworld text-to-speech.
- HSK is a trademark of its owner. This site is independent and not endorsed by CTI.
Contact
For corrections or questions, email support@wordswing.com. What has changed on the site is listed in the changelog.