Categories

The show is primarily concerned with identifying singing talent, though appearance, personality, stage presence and dance routines are also an important element of many performances. Each judge is assigned one of four categories, to use their experience to help the artists. The categories are: "Boys" (aged 16–24 males), "Girls" (aged 16–24 females), "Over 25s" (solo acts aged 25 and over), and "Groups" (including duos). Through the live shows, the judges act as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from other categories, and also vote to save or eliminate contestants.

Stages for seasons 1

There are five stages to the competition:

• Stage 1: Producers' auditions (these auditions decide who will sing in front of the judges)
• Stage 2: Judges' auditions
• Stage 3: Six-chair challenge
• Stage 4: Judges' houses
• Stage 5: Live shows (finals)

Stages for seasons 2

There are five stages to the competition:

• Stage 1: Producers' auditions (these auditions decide who will sing in front of the judges)
• Stage 2: Judges' auditions
• Stage 3: Boot camp
• Stage 4: Four-chair challenge & wildcard
• Stage 5: Live shows (finals)

Auditions

The show allows solo artists and vocal groups aged 16 and above, with no upper age limit, to compete. Applicants first upload a video audition to the Internet. The show's producers will decide who is qualified for the Judges' auditions. The producers' auditions are not televised. A selection of the auditions in front of the judges – usually the best, the worst and the most bizarre – are broadcast during the first few weeks of the show. The judges' auditions are held in front of a live audience, and the acts sing over a backing track. If at least three judges say "yes", the act goes through to the next stage, otherwise they are eliminated.

Boot camp and judges' houses

Live shows

The live shows feature the contestants' live performances and also at the end of the night, reveal the results of the public voting, culminating in one or more acts being eliminated. A difference in judge's vote in the Vietnamese version and other countries' versions is that there will be a bottom three instead of bottom two every live show. The judges will vote to save one contestant in the bottom three from elimination, and then the result will be reverted to the earlier public votes. The actual number of votes cast for each act is not revealed, nor even the order.

Also, different from the UK version, four contestants advance to the finals instead of three.

Judges' categories and their contestants

In each season, each judge is given a category to mentor and chooses small three to four acts (normally three, the fourth act is usually a wildcard) to progress to the live finals. This table shows which category each judge was allocated and which acts he or she put through to the live finals.

  – Winning judge/category. Winners are in bold, eliminated contestants in small font.