In a first aspect, a method for transmitting downlink control information is provided. The method includes: a terminal device determines multiple candidate resource sets for transmitting first control information; the terminal device detects the first control information sent by a network device in the multiple candidate resource sets; the terminal device determines a target resource set from the multiple candidate resource sets according to a detection result of the first control information; the terminal device determines a target control channel resource corresponding to the target resource set according to the target resource set and a first mapping relationship, and the first mapping relationship is used for indicating a corresponding relationship between the multiple candidate resource sets and multiple control channel resources; and the terminal device detects second control information sent by the network device in the target control channel resource.
In the first mapping relationship, the corresponding relationship between the multiple candidate resource sets and the multiple control channel resources may be determined by the network device and sent to the terminal device, or may be pre-appointed, e.g., specified in a protocol, by the terminal device and the network device.