The interview process involved a recruiter screen, a technical screen, and a final round. The tech screen is required for both Engineering Managers (EMs) and Individual Contributors (ICs). Duolingo utilizes managers in individual contributor roles as a way for them to get introduced to the codebase and the business, a practice I particularly like.

The tech screen took the form of a pair programming session in VS Code. During this session, the candidate adds simple features to a Duolingo web experience, specifically changing how translation hints appeared. A choice of languages was offered, likely Java, Python, and one other; I chose Java.

I was paired with another manager who stated they hadn't used Java since college. I felt I knew more about the language than they did. For instance, when I asked about using Apache Commons, the evaluator inquired, "what's that?"

I was able to complete the assignments with a few minor syntax errors that I resolved quickly upon compilation failure. There were also one or two missed items that were unclear from the discussion but were also fixed relatively quickly. The evaluator was polite and helpful as a pair programmer, though they did mention I seemed nervous. While I was nervous, I felt it was within reasonable limits for an interview scenario where I was the applicant and didn't believe it was excessive.

The next day, I received a terse email from the recruiter stating they were "moving forward with other candidates," with no further feedback provided.

See main description for the interview question.