方法
How the level check works
A quick vocabulary check that estimates where your current word knowledge sits across the HSK or JLPT scale.
What you’re measuring
Vocabulary first, on purpose
Vocabulary is the fastest, most reliable thing to measure in a few minutes — it’s recognisable, it’s countable, and it’s where most study time actually goes. So that’s where rikai starts: do you know this word, or not.
It’s also only one part of being able to use a language. Someone can know thousands of words and still freeze up in conversation, or the reverse. Keep that in mind as you read your result — more on exactly what it does and doesn’t cover further down.
The mechanics
An adaptive ladder, not a fixed quiz
Every check climbs at its own pace. There’s no fixed question count and no fixed level to reach — the quiz reacts to you, round by round.
Starts accessible
Everyone begins with words easy enough to place them fairly — no one is thrown into the deep end.
Answers steer it
Know a round of words well, and the next round climbs into harder vocabulary. Struggle, and it eases back.
Shaky rounds repeat
An uncertain round gets one retry at the same level before the check moves on — never a guess off a fluke.
A range, not a guess
With only a handful of questions per level, the result lands as a range — wide or narrow depending on how clear your answers were.
What it means
Reading your result
Mandarin · HSK
HSK1 through HSK6 are reported individually. HSK7-9 shows as a single combined band, not three separate levels — the underlying word data doesn’t cleanly separate HSK7, HSK8, and HSK9, so rikai reports them together rather than claim precision it doesn’t have.
rikai vocabulary estimate · not an official HSK result
Japanese · JLPT
Results are reported across N5 through N1. Because there’s no single official JLPT vocabulary list to test against, this is rikai’s own vocabulary estimate aligned to the levels as they’re commonly understood — not a stand-in for the real exam.
rikai vocabulary estimate · not an official JLPT result
The words behind the check
Where the words come from
HSK uses vocabulary aligned with the HSK 3.0 framework, organised across the levels used by rikai.
JLPT is different: no single official JLPT vocabulary list exists to draw from, so rikai’s JLPT words are our own curated, in-house list — not sourced from, or endorsed by, the Japan Foundation or the JLPT organizers.
Either way, the live check deliberately draws from a small, tightly curated sample per level rather than testing you on thousands of words — every question is one we’re confident about.
The fine print
What it doesn’t tell you
This is a vocabulary check, not a complete language assessment. It doesn’t test grammar, listening, reading comprehension, or speaking — someone can have strong vocabulary and still find conversation hard, or the other way around. Nothing here is a certificate or a pass/fail; if you need an official result, you’ll need to sit the real HSK or JLPT.