Abstract: Detection of pesticide residues was a crucial for food safety. Generally, chromatography (gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, chromatography-mass spectroscopy, etc.) was used for the detection of pesticide residues. However, these methods required expensive, large-scale and sophisticated instruments. To overcome the limits of chromatography, series of detection methods have been developed for the rapid, real-time and on-site determination of pesticide residues. In this review, rapid detection methods of pesticide residues, including biosensor (enzyme biosensor, immunosensor, aptamer sensor, whole-cell biosensor), spectroscopy (near infrared spectroscopy, terahertz spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, etc.), microfluidics and direct mass spectroscopy, and their principles, characteristic and recent advances have been summarized. Problems to be solved in the rapid detection of pesticide residues and future prospective have also been analyzed.