How much of the JLPT does WaniKani cover?
WaniKani teaches all 79 N5 kanji, all 166 of N4, and all 367 of both N3 and N2. N1 is where the syllabus stops short: 971 of its 1,232 characters are on WaniKani, or 79%. Reaching level 60 therefore leaves you holding every kanji the lower four tiers can test you on.
The lists are the community reconstruction of the JLPT kanji syllabus, which the test stopped publishing after the 2010 redesign. Coverage here is measured against WaniKani's own kanji set, so it moves only when WaniKani adds items. Your personal coverage, calculated from your live WaniKani progress, is on the JLPT coverage page once you're logged in.
Coverage by JLPT level
| JLPT level | Total kanji | WaniKani covers | Taught in full by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N5 | 79 | 100% | WK level 16 | The whole list, and most of it inside the first ten levels. |
| N4 | 166 | 100% | WK level 27 | The whole list, finishing well before the halfway mark. |
| N3 | 367 | 100% | WK level 51 | No gaps, but the tail runs deep into the fifties. |
| N2 | 367 | 100% | WK level 51 | No gaps either, and it completes on the same level N3 does. |
| N1 | 1,232 | 79% | never | 261 characters sit outside the syllabus, almost all of them name kanji. |
What "covered" means
On Wanilog, a kanji counts as "learned" once it reaches Guru I (SRS stage 5) or higher - the same threshold WaniKani uses for its own level-up rule. Apprentice items are in-progress, not learned. You can also add kanji you know from outside WaniKani via the manual-known-kanji setting; those count toward your coverage too.
Reaching Guru I from a fresh lesson takes around 3 days 10 hours on the default SRS, so coverage tends to lag behind raw lesson counts. The SRS interval table on the FAQ spells the full timing out.
JLPT N5 kanji (79)
The foundational set. Survival kanji - numbers, days of the week, basic directions and verbs. WaniKani has introduced 99% of it by level 10, and the last straggler arrives at level 16.
JLPT N4 kanji (166)
Daily-life kanji: family, weather, basic adjectives, common verbs. Level 20 has put 99% of the list in front of you, and level 27 finishes it. Taking those lessons to Guru lags the lessons themselves by a few days apiece.
JLPT N3 kanji (367)
The big jump. N3 covers the kanji needed for general written Japanese: news headlines, manga, casual novels. Every character is on WaniKani, but the tail is long. Level 30 gets you 89% of the way and the set only closes at level 51, so most of N3 reads comfortably long before you have all of it.
JLPT N2 kanji (367)
Professional and academic vocabulary. WaniKani teaches all 367 of them, on the longest climb of the four tiers it finishes: 60% by level 30, 83% by level 40, then everything by level 51.
JLPT N1 kanji (1232)
The widest set, including specialised terms (legal, medical, literary), historical readings, and rare characters. This is the only tier WaniKani leaves incomplete: 53% of it has been taught by level 50 and 79% by level 60. The 261 it never reaches are dominated by jinmeiyo name kanji, which turn up in proper nouns rather than in running prose.
The percentages above are aggregate - to see which JLPT kanji you personally have learned, N5 through N1, sign in on the home page and open your live JLPT coverage.
Related coverage tools
- Joyo coverage - how much of Japan's government kanji list WaniKani teaches, by school grade.
- Frequency coverage - WaniKani's overlap with the top 2,500 most common kanji in modern Japanese text.
- WaniKani FAQ - level-up rules and SRS timing, spelled out.