Cephalopod holds significant importance in marine ecosystems as it occupies a wide range of trophic level in the marine food web and has a high production to biomass ratio. As a source of high-quality animal protein, cephalopod has become one of the world's most exploitable fishery resources, landings of which have increased rapidly in recent decades. In contrast to traditional fish stocks, cephalopod has a variety of special biological characteristics, including short life cycle, rapid growth rate, and complex population structure. Furthermore, the biomass of cephalopod is highly susceptible to fluctuations in the marine environment, making the study of cephalopod population dynamics and stock assessment more difficult and challenging than for traditional fish stocks. That is because most assessment models assume the existence of multiple year classes and population dynamics associated with iteroparity. This paper provided an overview of the life history characteristics of cephalopod and the relationship between its resources and marine environmental factors； teased out the suitability of stock assessment models applied to cephalopod, such as the surplus production model, delay-difference model, depletion model, age structure model, etc.； and pointed out the problems and limitations of the current research on cephalopod stock assessment. Therefore, based on the comprehensive analysis conducted, it can be concluded that the research is still in its preliminary stage. The improved depletion model and surplus production model are the most commonly used, but neither is able to develop time-sensitive fisheries management measures. We finally proposed the development direction for optimizing the research on cephalopod stock assessment from the following three aspects： improving the accuracy and reliability of input parameters, conducting long-term systematic investigations of environment and resources, and developing new assessment models.