Hot tearing is a common solidification defect in both continuous cast steels and foundry shaped castings, which has a significant impact on the quality of the final products. It is a complex phenomenon that involves both the thermal and mechanical conditions and chemical element segregation that evolves during casting process. Over several decades, much effort has been invested into improving our understanding of the conditions required for the occurrence of hot tearing and to relate these conditions with casting parameters, like casting speed in continuous cast process, alloy composition, cooling conditions, etc. This review summarizes the results from previous investigations that have focused on the hot tearing phenomenon of steels, including criteria for hot tearing, experimental methods, and several validated models for different testing methods. The factors that influence hot tearing sensitivity are also reviewed and discussed in the present work.