Abstract: The wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) has gained more and more attention because of its unique advantages in forming large-scale components, and has become one of the most widely used metal additive manufacturing technology. The development history of WAAM is described. The influence of process parameters on the morphology of deposited layer and the evolution mechanism of microstructure is analyzed from the perspective of “shape and property control”. The numerical simulation methods for residual stress and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed, and it is pointed out that the combination of computational fluid dynamics and finite element method is one future research trend. The common methods for controling the residual stress and deformation, as well as the problems and challenges in wire and arc additive manufacturing, are summarized.