Diagnosis is an essential launching point for accurate medical treatment, and rapid and accurate diagnostic approaches have become the increasingly vital goal inspiring developments in a variety of analytical methods. With increasing attention in the area of glycosciences, the roles that carbohydrates play in many diseases have been elucidated, and the use of carbohydrates as disease biomarkers has become an emerging diagnostics strategy. This review article does not intend to comprehensively include all carbohydrate-related diagnostics studies. We do, however, wish to describe carbohydrate recognition and the design of sensitive detecting devices, especially those developed recently, so that readers might better grasp the principles behind such devices and relevant detection strategies, particularly those favoring inexpensive, rapid, and point-of-care (POC) approaches.