The main feature of the king snake is the black stripes with the word king on its head, so it is called king snake. The head and back of the body have black scale margins, and the center is yellow, like a rapeseed pattern. There are more than 30 yellow horizontal slanting stripes in the front part of the body, which gradually disappear to the rear part of the body.

The ventral surface is yellow with black markings. The tail is slender and can reach more than 2.5 meters in length. The color spots of adult snakes and young snakes are very different, and there is no king pattern on the head, which is often mistaken for other snake species.