Aspheric optical elements have greater freedom and flexibility, and are widely used in aerospace, microelectronic equipment, optical precision measurement, laser optics and many other fields. The surface defects of optical elements will affect the performance of optical systems, and the control of surface defects requires corresponding detection methods. There are still technical challenges in the detection of optical surface defects with high resolution, high accuracy and high efficiency. This paper summarizes the types, evaluation standards and detection methods of surface defects of optical elements, focuses on the surface defect detection technology of aspheric optical elements and its application range, analyzes and compares the advantages and disadvantages of various methods, and finally prospects the development trend of surface defect detection technology.