Continuous fiber reinforced composites have long been favored in fields such as aerospace and automotive industry due to their advantages of lightweight, high strength, and high design freedom. To achieve rapid, personalized, and complex structural manufacturing of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites, and break through the limitations of traditional manufacturing methods, the use of 3D printing technology to prepare continuous fiber composite materials is considered an effective approach and has received widespread attention and research. Therefore, the basic principles, method classification, and research progress of 3D printing technology for continuous fiber reinforced composite were elaborated, and the development was reviewed from the aspects of forming materials, forming processes, forming properties, and forming mechanisms. Prospects for 3D printing of hybrid continuous fiber reinforced composite, multidegree-of-freedom 3D printing and their path planning research were proposed.