Ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC) plays an important role in the field of thermal protection in aerospace. High quality UHTC powder is important raw material for the preparation of high performance UHTC. In the process of preparing UHTC powder, the powder prepared by precursor-derived method has high purity, small particle size and uniform distribution of component, so it has broad application prospects. According to the synthesis mechanism of precursor, the precursor-derived methods of UHTC were divided into metal alkoxides complex synthesis method, synthesis based on Grignard reaction method and synthesis by introducing branch chains method. The research progress of preparation of UHTC by three methods in recent years was reviewed. The advantages and disadvantages of three methods were analyzed and summarized. The existing problems and future development direction of the UHTC powder prepared by precursor-derived method were pointed out.