Cartilage tissue is a viscoelastic connective tissue that is mainly responsible for load bearing, load transfer, and enabling movement of joints. Cartilage injuries occur due to trauma, aging, sports activities, and pathological conditions. The avascular and aneural nature of cartilage tissue limits its reparative ability, requiring clinical intervention for treatment. The challenges encountered with traditional surgical methods have led to a rise in interest in the advancement of methods based on cartilage tissue engineering in recent years. The unique advantages of hydrogels make them a popular choice in the tissue engineering approach. These biomaterials are biocompatible and biodegradable, possess high water retention capacity, and can replicate native tissue, resulting in an appropriate scaffold for the treatment of cartilage damage. Natural polymers, including alginate, agarose, fibrin, hyaluronic acid, collagen, gelatin, chitosan, chondroitin sulfate, cellulose, gellan gum, and dextran, alongside synthetic polymers such as polyethylene glycol, polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, and polylactic-co-glycolic acid, are utilized in hydrogel production, commonly employed in cartilage tissue engineering approaches. Besides the utilization of natural or synthetic polymers individually in hydrogel fabrication, the potential of composite hydrogels in cartilage treatment is significantly promising.