While nanoscale mimics of peroxidase have been extensively developed over the past decade or so, their catalytic efficiency as a key parameter has not been substantially improved in recent years. Herein, we report a class of highly efficient peroxidase mimic-nickel-platinum nanoparticles (Ni-Pt NPs) that consist of nickel-rich cores and platinum-rich shells. The Ni-Pt NPs exhibit a record high catalytic efficiency with a catalytic constant (K-cat) as high as 4.5 x 10(7) s(-1), which is similar to 46- and 10(4)-fold greater than the K-cat values of conventional Pt nanoparticles and natural peroxidases, respectively. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the unique surface structure of Ni-Pt NPs weakens the adsorption of key intermediates during catalysis, which boosts the catalytic efficiency. The Ni-Pt NPs were applied to an immunoassay of a carcinoembryonic antigen that achieved an ultralow detection limit of 1.1 pg/mL, hundreds of times lower than that of the conventional enzyme-based assay.