Duolingo English Test Format 2026: Structure, Timing and All 13 Question Types

The Test at a Glance

Total time

About 1 hour

Score scale

10-160, in 5s

Question types

13

Results

Within 48 hours

Feature	Detail
Where you take it	Anywhere with a quiet private room, a computer and a phone. No test centre, no appointment.
Length	About 60 minutes: roughly 5 minutes of onboarding, 45 minutes of adaptive questions, 10 minutes of samples.
Sections	None. The DET is one continuous adaptive session that mixes all four skills.
Scoring	AI-graded on a 10-160 scale in 5-point steps, plus eight subscores on the same scale.
Results	Certified and emailed within 48 hours. Sending scores to institutions is free and unlimited.
Validity	Two years from the test date.
Price	USD 70 for a single test, or a two-test bundle at a lower per-test price. The price is the same in every country.
Retakes	Up to three purchases in any 30-day period. You have 21 days to sit a test after buying it.
Acceptance	Over 5,000 institutions worldwide, including most US universities that take international applicants.

Prices, policies and acceptance move. Confirm the current fee and your institution’s minimum score on Duolingo’s own site before you buy a test.

The Three Stages of a Sitting

The hour is not one long exam. It is three stages, and only the middle one is adaptive.

Stage 1 — Onboarding, about 5 minutes

A tech check on camera, microphone and speakers, a run through the rules, your ID held up to the camera, and the second camera set up on your phone. None of this is graded, but a mistake here can invalidate everything that follows.

Stage 2 — Adaptive test, about 45 minutes

Eleven of the thirteen question types, in a fixed order, with the difficulty of the adaptive ones moving with your performance. This stage produces your score.

Stage 3 — Writing Sample and Speaking Sample, about 10 minutes

Two long open responses. They count towards your Writing and Speaking subscores and are sent to every institution you share results with, as text and as video.

Stage 3 is the only part of the DET a human at your target university will actually read and watch. Treat it as an admissions document, not as the last two questions of a test.

The Order of Questions

The sequence below is the order the adaptive stage runs in. Knowing it matters: the reading vocabulary items come first while you are freshest, and every open speaking and writing task lands in the second half, when most test takers are already tired.

#	Question type	How many	Feeds	Adaptive
1	Read and Select	1 set of 15-18 words	Reading	Yes
2	Fill in the Blanks	1 set of 6-9 sentences	Reading	Yes
3	Read and Complete and Listen and Type, in random order	3-6 passages and 6-9 dictations	Reading, Listening	Yes
4	Interactive Reading	2 sets of 6 questions	Reading	Yes
5	Interactive Listening	2 scenarios	Listening, Writing	Yes
6	Write About the Photo	3	Writing	No
7	Interactive Writing	1 set of 2 parts	Writing	No
8	Speak About the Photo	1	Speaking	No
9	Read, Then Speak	1	Speaking	No
10	Interactive Speaking *	6-8 questions	Speaking	Yes
11	Writing Sample	1	Writing	No
12	Speaking Sample	1	Speaking	No

Only the adaptive items change difficulty. The photo, essay and sample tasks are the same size for everyone, which makes them the part of the test you can prepare most directly.

* The sequence above is the one Duolingo publishes, with Interactive Speaking shown in the speaking block it joined in July 2025. Duolingo has not republished a numbered sequence since that change, so treat the exact position of Interactive Speaking within the speaking tasks as approximate. Everything before it is confirmed.

All 13 Question Types

Each question type has its own page with worked examples, timing drills and the mistakes that cost the most points.

Question type	Subscore	Per test	Time	Adaptive	Scored as
Read and Select	Reading	15-18 words, one set	5 seconds per word	Yes	Right or wrong
Fill in the Blanks	Reading	6-9 sentences, one set	20 seconds per sentence	Yes	Right or wrong
Read and Complete	Reading	3-6 passages	3 minutes per passage	Yes	Right or wrong, per word
Interactive Reading	Reading	2 passages, 6 questions each	7 or 8 minutes per passage	Yes	Right or wrong, except Highlight the Answer (0 to 1)
Listen and Type	Listening	6-9 items	1 minute per item	Yes	0 to 1 scale
Interactive Listening	Listening (and Writing)	2 scenarios	6 min 30 s, then 75 seconds	Yes	Right or wrong, plus writing criteria for the summary
Write About the Photo	Writing	3	1 minute	No	Writing criteria: content, discourse coherence, grammar, lexis
Interactive Writing	Writing	1 (two parts)	5 minutes, then 3 minutes	No	Writing criteria, both parts graded together
Writing Sample	Writing	1	5 minutes	No	Writing criteria, and sent to institutions
Speak About the Photo	Speaking	1	90 seconds	No	Speaking criteria: content, discourse coherence, fluency, grammar, lexis, pronunciation
Read, Then Speak	Speaking	1	90 seconds	No	Speaking criteria
Interactive Speaking	Speaking	6-8 questions	35 seconds per answer	Yes	Speaking criteria
Speaking Sample	Speaking	1	3 minutes	No	Speaking criteria, and sent to institutions as video

Reading question types

Read and Select, Fill in the Blanks, Read and Complete and Interactive Reading. Together they take up more of the adaptive stage than anything else.

Listening question types

Listen and Type and Interactive Listening. Two types, but they carry the whole Listening subscore between them.

Writing question types

Write About the Photo, Interactive Writing, Writing Sample and the summary inside Interactive Listening.

Speaking question types

Speak About the Photo, Read Then Speak, Interactive Speaking and the Speaking Sample.

How the Adaptive Engine Works

Most of the reading and listening questions, and now the Interactive Speaking conversation as well, are computer adaptive. Answer correctly and the next item is harder. Answer wrongly and the next one is easier. The engine keeps narrowing until it is confident about your level, which is why the test can measure the whole 10-160 range in 45 minutes.

A hard-feeling test is usually a good sign. Items get harder because you are getting them right.
A test that feels easy all the way through is the warning sign, not the comfortable one.
You cannot go back. There is no review screen and no flagging.
The item bank is very large, so retaking the test almost never repeats a question. Memorising items is both against the rules and pointless.

Because the engine adapts, a single careless early answer costs more than a single careless late one: it steers the difficulty of everything that follows. Spend your first thirty seconds settling in, not warming up.

Scores and Subscores

Everything is reported on the same 10-160 scale in 5-point steps. Your overall score is the average of the four individual subscores; the four integrated subscores are averages of pairs of those, rounded to the nearest five.

Individual subscore	Built from
Reading	Read and Select, Fill in the Blanks, Read and Complete, Interactive Reading
Listening	Listen and Type, Interactive Listening (Listen and Complete, Listen and Respond)
Writing	Write About the Photo, Interactive Writing, Writing Sample, Summarize the Conversation
Speaking	Speak About the Photo, Read Then Speak, Interactive Speaking, Speaking Sample

Integrated subscore	Average of	What it tells an admissions office
Literacy	Reading + Writing	How well you handle written English in both directions.
Comprehension	Reading + Listening	How much you take in. Usually the highest of the four.
Conversation	Speaking + Listening	How well you hold a live exchange.
Production	Speaking + Writing	How much you can produce yourself. Usually the lowest of the four.

DET score	CEFR level	User	What it means in practice
10-55	A1 / A2	Basic user	Can handle very simple, predictable exchanges. Below the level almost any degree programme asks for.
60-95	B1	Independent user	Can deal with familiar matters and produce connected text on everyday topics. Enough for some foundation and pathway programmes.
100-125	B2	Independent user	Can follow a technical discussion in their field and argue a position. The band most undergraduate admissions sit in.
130-150	C1	Proficient user	Can use English flexibly for academic and professional purposes. What competitive and postgraduate programmes ask for.
155-160	C2	Proficient user	Can handle anything read or heard with ease and express fine shades of meaning. Rare, and above what any institution requires.

Production — speaking plus writing — is the subscore that most often holds a result back. Comprehension rises with exposure; production only rises with practice you actually get feedback on.

DET, IELTS and TOEFL Compared

Duolingo publishes its own concordance with IELTS and TOEFL iBT. It is the table admissions offices use when they set a DET minimum, so it is the one worth knowing.

DET	IELTS band	TOEFL iBT
160	8.5-9	120
155	8	119
150	8	117-118
145	7.5	113-116
140	7.5	109-112
135	7	104-108
130	7	98-103
125	6.5	93-97
120	6.5	87-92
115	6	82-86
110	6	76-81
105	6	70-75
100	5.5	65-69
95	5.5	59-64
90	5	53-58
85	5	47-52
80	5	41-46
75	4.5	35-40
70	4.5	30-34
65	4.5	24-29
10-60	0-4	0-23

	DET	IELTS Academic	TOEFL iBT
Length	About 1 hour	About 2 hours 45 minutes	About 2 hours
Where	At home, on demand	Test centre or at home, booked in advance	Test centre or at home, booked in advance
Speaking	Recorded, AI-graded, plus an adaptive conversation with a character	Live examiner interview	Recorded, AI and human graded
Results	Within 48 hours	3 to 13 days	About 4 to 8 days
Score sending	Free and unlimited	A limited number free, then paid	A limited number free, then paid
Score scale	10-160	0-9 bands	0-120

The DET is cheaper and faster, but it is also less forgiving of a bad room and a weak connection. Its difficulty is not lower — a DET 130 is an IELTS 7, and neither is easy.

Rules That Invalidate Results

The DET is proctored after the fact: a human reviews the recording of your session. Most invalidated results come from test takers who were not cheating and broke a rule by accident.

Rule	What it means in the room
Stay on screen	Do not look away while you think. Looking down at the keyboard while typing is fine; staring out of a window is not. Do not sit facing a window.
No second person	You must be alone, with the door closed, for the whole hour. Tell the household, and put a note on the door.
Nothing running	Quit every application before you start, including dictionaries, translators, messaging apps and grammar checkers. Restarting the computer is the reliable way to do it.
No notes	No paper, no pen, no phone in your hand. The only phone in use is the one acting as the second camera.
Physical ID	The original document, held up to the camera. Photocopies and photos of an ID are refused. India: passport only. China: passport or government photo ID.
Face uncovered	No headphones or earbuds. Ears, eyes and mouth visible throughout. Do not speak until told to speak.
Your own words	Memorised or pre-written answers are a violation even when the English is your own. Answer the question that is on the screen.
One account	Results from a second account are not certified.

Breaking a rule does not usually produce a warning. It produces an uncertified result, with no refund, and in serious cases a permanent ban.

Use a wired connection if you have one; Wi-Fi drops are the most common technical failure.
Disconnect second monitors and stay in full-screen mode.
Keep the mouse cursor inside the test window.
Charge the phone acting as the second camera, or plug it in, and put it on Do Not Disturb. Do not touch it once you start.

How to Prepare in Four Weeks

Week 1 — find the floor. Take a full mock test cold and read the subscores rather than the total. The lowest of Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation and Production tells you what the next three weeks are for.
Week 2 — drill the mechanical items. Read and Select, Fill in the Blanks and Read and Complete respond to volume faster than anything else on the test. Twenty minutes a day moves the Reading subscore within a week.
Week 3 — produce every day. One photo description, one 90-second spoken answer and one five-minute essay a day, each one graded. Production is the subscore that will not move without feedback.
Week 4 — rehearse the sitting, not the questions. Two full mocks at the time of day you plan to test, in the room you plan to test in, with the phone camera set up. Fix the room before you fix the English.

Every question type on this site has its own page with worked examples and drills, and the DET mock test reports all eight subscores the way the real score report does.

Common Questions

Is the DET easier than IELTS?

It is shorter and cheaper, not easier. Duolingo’s own concordance puts a DET 120 at IELTS 6.5 and a DET 130 at IELTS 7. What is genuinely easier is the logistics: no booking, no travel, and results in two days.

What is a good DET score?

For most undergraduate admissions, 105-120. For competitive universities and most postgraduate programmes, 120-130. Above 135 you are past what almost any institution asks for. Check the specific programme rather than a general list.

How many times can I take it?

You may purchase up to three tests in any 30-day period, and there is no lifetime limit. Each purchase must be used within 21 days.

Do universities see my speaking video?

Yes. Every institution you send results to receives your Writing Sample as text and your Speaking Sample as video, from that specific test. They cannot see samples from your other attempts.

Can I use headphones?

No. Headphones and earbuds are not allowed. Use your computer’s speakers, and test the volume during the tech check.

What happens if my internet drops?

The test attempts to resume. If it cannot, contact Duolingo support — incomplete sittings caused by technical failure are usually reissued, but only if you report them.

Is the practice test the same as the real one?

Duolingo’s free 45-minute practice test uses the same question types and gives an unofficial estimate. It is not proctored and does not produce a certified score.

How long are results valid?

Two years from the test date. Institutions may set a shorter window, so check the deadline you are applying against.