Senior Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Duolingo with 3.3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 56% positive. To compare, the company-average is 47.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Senior Software Engineer roles take an average of 31 days to get hired, when considering 9 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Duolingo overall takes an average of 28 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Duolingo as a Senior Software Engineer according to 9 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 35%
One on one interview: 26%
Skills test: 17%
Background check: 4%
Group panel interview: 4%
Drug test: 4%
Other: 4%
Personality test: 4%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Duolingo in Mar 2024
Interview
2 Tech Screen Questions
4 Final Virtual Onsite Interview
They only ask leetcode hard questions and an insane amount of follow up questions. It's like they don't really want to hire anyone. TBH their expectations are unrealistic. Make sure to prepare very well for the interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I won't reveal the questions due to the interview NDA.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Duolingo (New York, NY) in Oct 2025
Interview
First round: One team member situational interview, one pair programming exercise (practical). For onsite: one engineering project deep dive, one infrastructure as code pull request review interview, one culture fit interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a buggy implementation of a feature in the app, fix the bug. There were increasing levels where we wanted to improve the feature functionality.
Most of the interviews went great. All interviews were conducted with 2 interviewers so I was able to meet a lot of engineers and get a variety of perspectives on the company.
The only interview I didn't enjoy is my final one, where my interviewer felt disinterested and unengaged. During the middle of the interview I saw them get up and start playing with a bouncy ball... The bounces against the wall were audible and distracting.
They also seem to not use a question bank. So if you've got a slightly immoral contact from within the company (or someone wanting the referral bonus). congratulations on the free offer. Otherwise, if you fail, you're probably barred from applying there ever again.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Recruiter screen -> Easy hackerrank -> Medium pair programming -> Medium code review -> Hard technical design -> Ungraded hiring manager chat (no questions asked)