  Among various multipartite entangled states, Dicke states stand out because
their entanglement is maximally persistent and robust under particle losses.
Although much attention has been attracted for their potential applications in
quantum information processing and foundational studies, the characterization
of Dicke states remains as a challenging task in experiments. Here, we propose
efficient and practical protocols for verifying arbitrary $n$-qubit Dicke
states in both adaptive and nonadaptive ways. Our protocols require only two
distinct settings based on Pauli measurements besides permutations of the
qubits. To achieve infidelity $\epsilon$ and confidence level $1-\delta$, the
total number of tests required is only $O(n\epsilon^{-1}\ln\delta^{-1})$. This
performance is exponentially more efficient than all previous protocols based
on local measurements, including quantum state tomography and direct fidelity
estimation, and is comparable to the best global strategy. Our protocols are
readily applicable with current experimental techniques and are able to verify
Dicke states of hundreds of qubits.
