Building HSKtools: A Free HSK Level Test for Chinese Learners

linford lee — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:45:16 +0000

When I started learning Chinese, the first question everyone asked was: "What HSK level are you?" I did not have a good answer. An official placement exam felt expensive and formal, and most online quizzes were either too long, required an account, or asked for an email before showing results.

So I built HSKtools, a free set of tools that helps Chinese learners find their level and practice the words they actually need.

What the site does

The core tool is a free HSK level test:

10 quick questions
About 5 minutes
Instant HSK 1-6 estimate
No sign-up, no email, no payment

Alongside the test, I added tools that came up again and again while talking to learners:

HSK Text Analyzer - paste any Chinese text and see which HSK level the words belong to
HSK Vocabulary Quiz - quick practice for words at a chosen level
HSK Vocabulary Test - find the words you still need to learn
HSK 1-9 level pages - word counts and overviews for the HSK 3.0 system
Study guides - practical posts like how to prepare for the HSK test

Why keep it so small

The hardest part was not adding features. The site could easily have become a full LMS with progress tracking, login, gamification, and a mobile app. I deliberately kept the first version small:

The level test is an estimate, not an official exam, and the site says so clearly.
Everything is free, so there is no paywall psychology.
The tools answer one question each: "What level am I?", "What words do I know?", "What does this text contain?"

That constraint made every page faster to build and easier to explain.

Tech notes

The site is built with Next.js. The level test runs entirely in the browser: the questions are static, scoring is client-side, and there is no account system between the user and the result. The HSK level pages are regular pages, so they load fast and remain useful even before someone takes the test.

What I learned

A few things surprised me:

10 questions is a real product decision. Long enough to feel meaningful, short enough that people actually finish it.
"No sign-up" is a feature. Removing the account wall removed the biggest source of friction.
Honesty builds trust. Calling the test "an estimate" on the page stopped people from expecting an official result and made feedback more useful.
Small pages add up. Individual pages for HSK 1-9 with word counts make the site useful even before someone takes the test.

What is next

The feedback so far has been mostly about practice: users want more questions, spaced repetition, and progress tracking. I am planning to add:

More question types (listening, reading, grammar)
Progress tracking without forcing an account
More language versions of the UI
A better vocabulary recommendation flow

Try it

If you are learning Chinese, or know someone who is, try the free HSK level test and let me know what you think. The most useful feedback is about question difficulty and which tools are missing.

Thanks for reading!