Kanji quiz
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To learn kanji inside sentences, Kanji Tower in the free FluencyTool app teaches the 1,026 school kanji in order, each one in a sentence you read and write.
This kanji quiz shows one kanji at a time and asks for its meaning or for one of its readings; a third mode shows a meaning and asks for the kanji. Pick a level from N5 to N1, answer a round of 10, 20 or 40, and at the end you see every kanji you missed with its meaning and readings, and can retry only those.
How to use this kanji test for practice
- Start one level below where you study. A round at an easy level shows which kanji you only half know.
- Do meanings first. "Kanji to meaning" is the fastest way to find gaps.
- Retry your misses straight away. The result screen lists each one; the retry button quizzes only those.
- Then switch to readings. Each question shows one real reading among three that belong to other kanji.
- Turn it around. "Meaning to kanji" asks you to tell similar-looking kanji apart, which is what reading real text demands.
What the levels contain
| Set | Kanji in the quiz | First ten in the set |
|---|---|---|
| N5 | 103 | 安 一 飲 右 雨 駅 円 下 何 火 |
| N4 | 181 | 悪 暗 以 意 医 員 引 院 運 映 |
| N3 and N2 | 739 | 愛 圧 案 位 依 偉 囲 委 易 異 |
| N1 | 1,206 | 亜 阿 哀 葵 茜 握 渥 旭 梓 扱 |
The sets do not overlap: the N4 set holds only the kanji added after N5, and so on. For the real test you need every lower level too. The JLPT N5 kanji list shows all 103 kanji of the first set with readings and example words. The JLPT study guides by level give the test format for each level, and each has a practice test with kanji reading questions in the real format.
How kanji readings work
Most kanji have two kinds of reading. The on reading came from Chinese and is used mostly in compounds: 食 is ショク in 食事 (しょくじ, a meal). The kun reading is the Japanese word the kanji was matched to, usually with hiragana after it: 食べる (たべる, to eat). The quiz writes kun readings with the hiragana part in brackets, た(べる). Our guide to onyomi and kunyomi explains how to tell which reading a word uses, and guess the kanji reading shows how the sound part of a kanji predicts its on reading.
A single kanji out of context is only half the skill. Kanji radicals shows the 20 parts that appear in half of the school kanji, which makes look-alike kanji easier to tell apart.
Frequently asked questions
How many kanji are in each JLPT level?
There is no official answer. The JLPT has not published kanji lists since the test was revised in 2010. This quiz uses the level tags in the KANJIDIC dictionary file, which come from the old four-level test: 103 kanji for N5, 181 more for N4, 739 for N3 and N2 together, and 1,206 for N1. Textbooks usually quote about 100 for N5, 300 by N4, 650 by N3, 1,000 by N2 and 2,000 by N1.
Why are N3 and N2 one set?
N3 was added in 2010, between the old levels 3 and 2, and no kanji list was published for it. Any split of those kanji into N3 and N2 is a guess by a publisher, so this quiz keeps them together.
Which reading does the quiz ask for?
Any real reading of the kanji counts. The quiz shows one reading of the kanji among three readings that belong to other kanji, and all four are the same type: on readings are in katakana (ショク) and kun readings are in hiragana with the okurigana in brackets, as in た(べる). After each answer you see up to two on readings and three kun readings.
Should I learn kanji by meaning or by reading first?
Meaning first is easier, and it lets you guess at new words. Readings are best learned inside words, because most kanji have several and the word decides which one applies. Use the meaning mode until a level feels easy, then the reading mode, and read real sentences alongside both.
Is this kanji test free?
Yes. All 2,229 kanji, every mode and every round length are free, with no sign-up. Nothing you answer is sent to a server.
Kanji meanings, readings and level tags: KANJIDIC2 version 3.6.2 (2026-08-31), © Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.