| Placering | Heat | Bana | Namn | Nationalitet | Tid | Noteringar |
| 1 | 3 | 3 | Tamás Kenderesi | Ungern | 1.54,73 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | László Cseh | Ungern | 1.55,14 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | 4 | Chad le Clos | Sydafrika | 1.55,57 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | Grant Irvine | Australien | 1.55,64 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | Michael Phelps | USA | 1.55,73 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 5 | Masato Sakai | Japan | 1.55,76 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | Viktor Bromer | Danmark | 1.55,77 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 5 | Daiya Seto | Japan | 1.55,79 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 6 | Leonardo de Deus | Brasilien | 1.55,98 | Q |
| 10 | 2 | 7 | Quah Zheng Wen | Singapore | 1.56,01 | Q |
| 11 | 2 | 3 | Evgeny Koptelov | Ryssland | 1.56,13 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 7 | Kaio de Almeida | Brasilien | 1.56,45 | Q |
| 13 | 1 | 4 | Simon Sjödin | Sverige | 1.56,46 | Q |
| 14 | 3 | 6 | Louis Croenen | Belgien | 1.56,48 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 8 | Jonathan Gómez | Colombia | 1.56,65 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | 6 | Li Zhuhao | Kina | 1.56,72 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 5 | Jan Świtkowski | Polen | 1.56,73 | |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Stefanos Dimitriadis | Grekland | 1.56,76 | |
| 19 | 4 | 2 | David Morgan | Australien | 1.56,81 | |
| 20 | 2 | 2 | Tom Shields | USA | 1.56,93 | |
| 21 | 3 | 1 | Carlos Peralta | Spanien | 1.56,98 | |
| 22 | 1 | 5 | Robert Žbogar | Slovenien | 1.57,05 | |
| 23 | 4 | 1 | Sebastien Rousseau | Sydafrika | 1.57,33 | |
| 24 | 2 | 8 | Daniil Pakhomov | Ryssland | 1.57,36 | |
| 25 | 2 | 1 | Jordan Coelho | Frankrike | 1.58,62 | |
| 26 | 1 | 6 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1.58,64 | |
| 27 | 3 | 8 | Wu Yuhang | Kina | 1.59,04 | |
| 28 | 1 | 3 | Sajan Prakash | Indien | 1.59,37 | |
| 29 | 1 | 2 | Bradlee Ashby | Nya Zeeland | 2.01,22 | |