Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors in South China and Southeast Asia. Its morbidity and mortality are the highest among the head and neck cancers. The preferred treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma is radiotherapy; however, radioresistance leading to local recurrence has become a major obstacle to successful treatment. To reduce the radioresistance of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and enhance the radiosensitivity, molecular mechanism of nasopharyngeal carcinoma radioresistance becomes the focus of medical researches at present. In recent years, scholars have carried out a lot of researches on the causes and mechanisms of nasopharyngeal carcinoma radioresistance in the aspects of genomics, proteomics and microRNA. This paper reviews the progress of the molecular mechanism of nasopharyngeal carcinoma radioresistance.