nice but stressful - Software Engineer Duolingo Employee Review

4.0
Jun 16, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

interesting industry, smart hardworking people, everyone is helpful, new ideas appreciated, great benefits

Cons

some teams can be pretty hectic. shipping faster is rewarded which creates the incentive to work longer hours especially if the rest of your team is doing so. promo/raise cycle recently reduced to 1x a year

Explore other reviews about Duolingo

5.0
May 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mission, smart and kind people, great work, hard working teams focused on results and delivering against an awesome mission. People push themselves and each other to learn and grow. Swarms of smart and creative problem solvers.

Cons

Small number of people are unhappy and instead of leaving they complain. A lot. I think it's like this everywhere but in a smaller company you feel it.

2.0
Jun 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good culture, great product, strong sense of ownership at all levels

Cons

Senior leadership has not found their rhythm. CEO calls pretty much all the shots. Engineering leadership is often invisible and lacks a cohesive tech strategy. Tech debt runs incredibly hot at this company and it often takes a major outage (did I mention CEO frequently joins the war rooms?) to get anything prioritized.

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