Lost circulation is the main technical problem that restricts the improvement of quality and efficiency of oil and gas drilling engineering. Improving the success rate of one-time plugging is an urgent need to ensure "safe，efficient，and economical" drilling in global oilfields. This paper summarized the leakage mechanism of drilling fluid，introduced the properties and interaction mechanism of various plugging materials such as bridging，high water loss，curing，polymer gel and smart materials，and then clarified the problems existing in current plugging materials. The bridging and plugging material was inexpensive，easy to operate， widely sourced，and had little impact on the rheological properties of drilling fluid. However，its particle size had poor compatibility with the leakage channel of formation. Furthermore，its formula was complex. High water loss plugging material was easy to use，effective，and had a high success rate in plugging. But it had some deficiencies. For example，the composition was complex，the water loss rate was difficult to control，and the blockage was not easy to remove. Curable plugging material was inexpensive，had high pressure sealing ability，and simple preparation and operation processes. However，its construction safety risks were high. Polymer gel plugging material had strong adaptability to leakage channels，good viscous resistance and anti-shearing dilution ability. However，its high-temperature resistance was low，long-term sealing performance and compatibility with drilling fluid were poor. Furthermore，the gelation time was difficult to control. Intelligent plugging material could intelligently adapt to various complex formations. It had strong pertinence and little damage to the formation. However，its plugging mechanism and adaptability needed to be further improved. The future development direction of plugging materials was proposed，such as the development of intelligent plugging materials and drilling fluid plugging materials for high-temperature well in deep and ultra deep wells.