I won Diamond League in Duolingo and learned some pretty interesting things along the way.

I just achieved a 300-day streak on Duolingo! So I’d like to share some insights from this language learning journey:

I’ve learned over 1000 Spanish words and a whole lot of grammar, enriching my vocabulary and understanding of the language.

Consistency has been my key to success. Even on days when I’m a bad student, I show up and sneak in one lesson. Spending less than 2 minutes on Spanish that day keeps the habit alive and activates those neurons. Remember, habits build humans.

Duolingo’s gamification is some of the best in the world. They’ve motivated me in numerous ways. If you’re in product development, I highly recommend spending a month on their app to learn how to keep your MAU and DAUs up.

How to win Diamond League in Duolingo

I once earned the gold metal in their highest league, the “Diamond League,” by figuring out the meta and bending some of the rules in their gamification system.

To compete at that level, you need to leverage all the buffs available and wait for the week where the RNG puts you in a cohort of plebeians.

Some hacks I used to maximize XP and reach the top of Diamond League include:
a. Using your XP boost and combining it with the “speak” lessons found under the more section review. This allows you to grind about 40XP every 90 seconds consistently, which is one of the fastest yielding ways to accumulate a few thousand XP for the week.
b. In the Word Matching game, found in the league section. Use your XP boost, then, for your first two matches in the section, match the top two words in the list in quick succession. This forces the algorithm to make those top two words a pair when it reveals the next matches. Once you have a pair in the top slot, you don’t have to consider those words when doing the rest of your matches. It’s equivalent to buying the “Row Blaster” Powerup, and it’s free.

I decided that consistency was going to be the key to learning. 300 is an intermediary goal for me; I’m trying to get to 365. So wish me luck.

I encourage you all to learn a language. It’s been fun, educational, and living in Texas, it has unlocked a ton of ambient messaging in Spanish that I wouldn’t have read or heard before.

(For my security-minded friends out there, it’s another tool in the toolbox for maintaining situational awareness.)

Happy language learning, and may you unlock new worlds with your linguistic skills!