Abstract Boosting the alkaline hydrogen evolution and oxidation reaction (HER/HOR) kinetics is vital to practicing the renewable hydrogen cycle in alkaline media. Recently, intensive research has demonstrated that interface engineering is of critical significance for improving the performance of heterostructured electrocatalysts particularly toward the electrochemical reactions involving multiple reaction intermediates like alkaline hydrogen electrocatalysis, and the research advances also bring substantial non-trivial fundamental insights accordingly. Herein, we review the current status of ...