The micro and nano scale microstructure can modulate the light field and increase the sensitivity of the sensor, is an important structure widely used in a new generation of functional devices or sensor devices. With the rapid development of advanced manufacturing technology including micromachining, laser direct writing and lithography, there is an urgent demand for nondestructive measurement technology of various types of micro and nano scale microstructure. In order to show much more knowledge about metrology of micro-structure as far as possible, this paper reviews the types of micro-structure in the development of industry in China and abroad. Focusing on the optical microscopy technology with the characteristics of high-precision nondestructive testing, this paper reviews four major methods of microstructure nondestructive testing that are still developing in China and abroad: dark-field microscopy with machine vision, confocal axial scanning microscopy, coherence spectral inversion combined with through-focus scanning optical microscopy, and low-coherence interferometric microscopy. This paper reviews the technical characteristics of these four methods, the test results of typical samples with these methods are individually given, some of which are published for the first time. These nondestructive testing methods are based on the diffraction-limited imaging principle of the optical microscope. The theoretical model of imaging can be unified, and the light intensity distribution function of the image field is given in this paper. The optical configurations of four major optical microscopes are all shown in the paper. The results show that the dark field microscopic imaging method is an effective method to detect harmful microstructures such as intensity-type particles, pits and scratches. Through the two-dimensional rapid scanning of the sample in the sample plane perpendicular to the optical axis, the rapid detection of large-scale samples can be realized, some measurement maps of large-scale fused silica flat and thin film transistor display screen are given in this paper; Confocal microscopic imaging and low coherence microscopic interferometry are the best detection methods of phase-type microstructure. They both need to make relative motion between the optical microscope and the sample to complete the vertical scanning, which can obtain the three-dimensional tomography of the microstructure sample. Three dimensional topography detection results of two-type gratings by confocal microscopy are provided and three dimensional topography of super-lens by white light low-coherence interferometric microscope is also given. We also review the theoretical reason of the bat effect on step type microstructure result. If the near-infrared light source is used with penetration ability to silicon-based materials instead of white light source, and in the meantime, the active compensator is used to compensate for the modulation aberration of detection beam induced by microstructure, the silicon-based microstructure with a high aspect ratio can be detected. By the way, some maps of three-dimensional tomography of MEMs microstructure on Si-substrate are given. The combination method of coherence spectral inversion and through-focus scanning optical microscopy is also effective on the measurement of high aspect ratio microstructure. The coherence spectral inversion method is used to obtain the height of the microstructure with a low numerical aperture microscope. In the meantime, the through-focus scanning method is used to obtain the critical dimension with a large numerical aperture microscope. Coherence spectral inversion combined with through-focus scanning optical microscopy and near-infrared interferometric microscopy is new methods developed to meet the needs of nondestructive testing of high aspect ratio microstructure. The former can quickly measure the linewidth and depth, and the latter can measure the three-dimensional tomography of high aspect ratio microstructure in the field of view of the objective lens. They can verify and supplement each other. In this paper, we describe the advantage and disadvantage of the above four major methods of microstructure nondestructive testing in detail from the multi angle of view, and discuss the new variability from the four major methods.