WaniKani difficulty, measured
Wanilog scores all four kinds of WaniKani subject against the review records of the learners who studied it. This page is what those scores add up to across the whole corpus: where the mass sits, which items hold either end, and whether the later levels are really harder or just better defended. MuzuScore explains how the number is arrived at.
What is measured
9,388 items currently carry a score. An item joins once at least 5 learners have review history on it, so the list grows as the record does.
Where the scores sit
Most items are unremarkable. The tall bars on the green end are the bulk of WaniKani, cleared without much trouble by most people who meet them, and the red tail is thin. That is what makes a deep red pill worth noticing when you see one on an item page.
The fullest band is the lowest one: 1,777 of the 9,388 scored items sit under 0.1.
Either end of each type
Radicals
Hardest
| # | Item | Meaning | MuzuScore |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 吉 | Good Luck | 0.81 |
| 2 | 充 | Allocate | 0.74 |
| 3 | 孝 | Teacher | 0.72 |
| 4 | 宀 | Roof | 0.71 |
| 5 | 苟 | Poem | 0.69 |
Easiest
| Item | Meaning | MuzuScore |
|---|---|---|
| 今 | Now | 0.00 |
| 竹 | Bamboo | 0.00 |
| 車 | Car | 0.00 |
| 肉 | Meat | 0.00 |
| 雨 | Rain | 0.00 |
Kana vocabulary
Hardest
| # | Item | Meaning | MuzuScore |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ほとんど | Most | 0.70 |
| 2 | どれ | Which One | 0.61 |
| 3 | そこ | There | 0.59 |
| 4 | その | That | 0.51 |
| 5 | いつ | When | 0.50 |
Easiest
| Item | Meaning | MuzuScore |
|---|---|---|
| ノート | Notebook | 0.00 |
| あなた | You | 0.00 |
| すみません | Excuse Me | 0.00 |
| コンビニ | Convenience Store | 0.00 |
| どこ | Where | 0.00 |
Difficulty across the sixty levels
Mean score per WaniKani level. The people reviewing level 50 material are the ones who survived forty-nine levels of it, so a flat line here would say the content keeps pace with the learners it has left.
Level 52 carries the highest mean score at 0.41, level 1 the lowest at 0.16.
Reading against meaning
Kanji and vocabulary are reviewed on two questions, and the score keeps them apart. These are the items where one side carries almost all of the difficulty. Radicals and kana vocabulary have no reading to review, so they are absent.
FAQ
What counts as an item here?
Every WaniKani subject with enough review history to score: radicals, kanji, vocabulary and the kana-only vocabulary. They are ranked on one scale, so a radical and a four-character compound can sit next to each other.
Why can a level 3 kanji outrank a level 50 one?
Because the score measures each item against the records of the people who actually studied it. A level 50 kanji is only ever met by learners who cleared forty-nine levels first, so it is judged against a strong group. An early item that keeps beating learners whose histories say it should not is the harder item, and its level does not cap where it lands.
Is it fair to compare a radical with a vocabulary word?
On the score itself, yes: each item is judged against its own learners rather than against the other types. The per-type pages exist anyway, because a radical asks one question and a vocabulary word asks two, and most people want to look at one kind of item at a time.
Figures rebuild hourly from review results Wanilog users choose to share, aggregated and anonymized. An item is scored once 5 learners have history on it, and its demotion share is published once 10 do. The privacy page covers what is collected.