Carbohydrates, in the form of polysaccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids and other glycoconjugates, play essential roles in numerous biological processes. Development of proper building blocks for glycosylation is important to access sufficient amount of carbohydrates for studies of their biological functions. Importantly, the concept of orthogonality has become a popular trend for newly developed building blocks and to be tested for their orthogonality towards commonly used protecting groups. In this review, we aim to introduce the results over the last decade using different novel orthogonal protecting groups in carbohydrate chemistry, as well as the application in oligosaccharide synthesis.