Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are particularly designed to detain the degradation of material as a result of high heat flux. Thermal barrier coating is a process in which fine particles of a material in non-metal or metal form are deposited on the surface of a substrate in semi-molten or molten state. During service, degradation in the form of thermal or mechanical performance of a component can happen. Therefore, it is very important to understand the material requirements and failures of TBCs. In this paper, the properties of material to be used in TBC and the failure mechanisms caused by hot corrosion, residual stress, sintering reaction, calcium-magnesium-aluminosilicate attack and interdiffusion and oxidation are discussed. This review correlates the properties and structure of TBCs and reasons of failures which would be beneficial for designing TBC for future applications. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.