The goal of cartilage tissue engineering is to recreate functional articular cartilage. The tissue must be able to fill chondral defects while maintaining the unique biomechanical characteristics that make articular cartilage functional. The goal may be accomplished either by inducing native repair cells to regenerate or through ex vivo techniques where cells are obtained from a patient and use to develop cartilage or pre-cartilaginous constructs in the laboratory and then the constructs are surgically implanted back into the patient. As this chapter will demonstrate, extensive research continues to examine nearly every facet of cartilage tissue engineering.