# Duolingo

Source: https://useronboarding.ai/companies/duolingo

- Category: Onboarding that uses AI
- Type: Other
- Product: https://www.duolingo.com

Duolingo's onboarding asks for a daily goal, then lets learners who already know some of the language take an adaptive placement test. The test uses real exercises chosen one at a time by a model to decide where in the course they start.

## Notes

- Onboarding splits early: 'New to Korean? Start here with the Basics' or 'Already know some Korean? Try this Placement Test' (GoodUX teardown screenshots).
- The placement test uses normal lesson exercises (e.g. 'What sound does this make?') with hearts and a progress bar, so it doesn't feel like a separate exam.
- Research Director Burr Settles: 'The difficulty of the words, the grammar, and the way we present it to you in the test, all play a role to pick the exact configuration so that in less than five minutes we have a really good sense of where you're going to start the course' (AWS customer story).
- The same modelling keeps personalizing after onboarding: spaced repetition that predicts recall per word and adds practice at the right time (AWS); Duolingo's blog says AI lets it 'curate and recommend resources for learners that are at a really specific difficulty level.'
- The goal picker (Casual 5 min to Intense 20 min/day) comes with the mascot reassuring 'You can always change goals later.'

## Patterns

adaptive placement, persona/goal quiz, skip-ahead for experienced users

## Screens

- !['Pick a goal': daily-minutes goal with Duo saying you can change it later](https://useronboarding.ai/images/duolingo-1.jpg) 'Pick a goal': daily-minutes goal with Duo saying you can change it later (source: https://goodux.appcues.com/blog/duolingo-user-onboarding)
- !['Choose a path': start from basics or take the placement test](https://useronboarding.ai/images/duolingo-2.jpg) 'Choose a path': start from basics or take the placement test (source: https://goodux.appcues.com/blog/duolingo-user-onboarding)
- ![Korean placement test question built from a normal lesson exercise](https://useronboarding.ai/images/duolingo-3.jpg) Korean placement test question built from a normal lesson exercise (source: https://goodux.appcues.com/blog/duolingo-user-onboarding)

## Articles

- [How AI is helping Duolingo democratize education](https://blog.duolingo.com/ai-democratize-education/): Duolingo Blog (by the product team)
- [Duolingo (AWS machine learning customer story)](https://aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/customers/innovators/duolingo): AWS
- [Duolingo's delightful user onboarding experience](https://goodux.appcues.com/blog/duolingo-user-onboarding): GoodUX by Appcues

## Cited in

- [What can't this data tell us?](https://useronboarding.ai/questions#gaps)