In this paper, we test the self-consistencies of the standard and the covariant light-front quark model and study the zero-mode issue via the decay constants of pseudoscalar (P ), vector (V ) and axial-vector (A) mesons, as well as the P → P weak transition form factors. With the traditional type-I correspondence between the manifestly covariant and the light-front approach, the resulting f V as well as f1 A and f3 A obtained with the λ = 0 and λ = ± polarization states are different from each other, which presents a challenge to the self-consistency of the covariant light-front quark model. However, such a self-consistency problem can be "resolved" within the type-II scheme, which requires an additional replacement M → M 0 relative to the type-I case. Moreover, the replacement M → M 0 is also essential for the self-consistency of the standard light-front quark model.In the type-II scheme, the valence contributions to the physical quantities (Q) considered in this paper are always the same as that obtained in the standard light-front quark model, [Q] val. = [Q] SLF , and the zero-mode contributions to f V, 1 A, 3 A and f − (q 2 ) exist only formally but vanish numerically, which further implies that [Q] val.= [Q] full . In addition, the manifest covariance of the covariant light-front quark model is violated in the traditional type-I scheme, but can be recovered by taking the type-II correspondence.The standard light-front (SLF) quark model [1][2][3][4] based on the light-front (LF) formalism [5] provides a conceptually simple but phenomenologically feasible framework for calculating the non-perturbative quantities of hadrons, such as the decay constants, transition form factors, distribution amplitudes and so on . In the SLF approach, the constituent quark and antiquark in a bound-state are required to be on their respective mass-shells, the physical quantities are computed directly in three-dimensional LF momentum space, and the plus component (µ = +, the so-called "good" component) of the current matrix elements is usually taken in order to avoid the zero-mode contribution. Obviously, the Lorentz covariance of the matrix elements obtained in the SLF quark model is lost. Moreover, the usual recipe to avoid the zero-mode contributions by taking the plus component is in fact always invalid for many cases, for instance, the composite spin-1 systems [28]. While the zero-mode issue is highly nontrivial and deserves careful analyses [29], the SLF quark model is powerless for determining the zero-mode contributions by itself. Because of these shortcomings, the SLF quark model was soon superseded by the manifestly covariant light-front (CLF) quark model. The CLF quark model was firstly exploited by Jaus [28], Choi and Ji [29], as well as Cheng et al. [30], with the help of the manifestly covariant Bethe-Salpeter (BS) approach [31, 32],and has been further studied in Refs. [33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. Compared to the SLF approach, the CLF quark model is characterized by the following two distinguished features: it prov...