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Cheating in Duolingo?

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rwguthrie
United States of America

Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by rwguthrie »

Hi everyone, I hope this is an appropriate use of this forum, but I am working on an article about cheating in Duolingo and I'd love to get some input from dedicated Duo users like yourselves.

From reading these forums, it seems like a common sentiment is that it doesn't matter if someone else is cheating, but that's part of why this subject is interesting -- why would someone cheat on a language learning app? What do they get out of it?

I'd love to hear your insights, and if you have experience with a cheater yourself, that would be useful as well (also, if you've used cheats/bots or something similar in the past and would be willing to talk about it, I'd be very interested in that perspective).

You can message me here or email me at [...]

Thanks all!

Edited by moderator: for user safety, forum rules do not allow to post email addresses or any other personal contact information.

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MoniqueMaRie
Germany

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by MoniqueMaRie »

To answer your question "Why would someone cheat on a language learning app?"

Quite simply because Duolingo is also a game and there are people who like to crack the rules of games to achieve high scores.

Native :de: / using :uk: / learning :fr: :cn: :it: / once learnt Image / trying to understand at least a bit :poland:

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SweNedGuy
Belgium

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by SweNedGuy »

There are multiple topics complaining about people apparently cheating on DL.

Just a few links:
How the hell can someone get 45000 XP in less than a week?
Extreme XP points?
XP Farming & XP 'Bot' Cheaters
How to progress in leagues?

Questions are also raised on how leagues are composed:
How are the league members selected?

Speaking :netherlands: :fr: :uk: :es: Learning :de:(B2-) :it:(B1) Image :sweden: :portugal: Image (A)

Saperlipopette!

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Saperlipopette! »

There's also a topic discussing someone else's article on cheating.

Duolingo turned me into a monster


I didn't notice much outright cheating in leagues with bots mining XP. What I called cheating was nerfing -- Duolingo Story Readers, and those doing Unit One review lessons under the timer, etc. Most people doing that sort of stuff tend to justify it to themselves. "Well, you do need the practice," " stories are fun and useful," etc.

They did a great job with Duo for schools with leagues. You're now in a noncompetitive league with your classmates with no prizes, buckets, or demotion zones. You have access to the cooperative competition like daily quests, friends quests, and badges. You also have the social features too. It wouldn't be too hard to extend this to everyone -- have an option for a noncompetitive league which puts you in a league of thirty with no demotion zones or prizes. This would also give access to the cooperative challenges & social features.

Years ago Sean Columbo said that he understood that league competition doesn't work for a lot of people, but the only choice you had was make your profile private or not. He also said that it was difficult to divorce leagues and private profiles. Now they have technology built for noncompetitive leagues which would essentially do that. As of yet, they have not introduced them to the public, only schools. They ought to put this noncompetitive league thing into place. It wouldn't turn competitive--in the past, they had no awards and less onerous demotion zones & leagues weren't competitive in those cases.

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SweNedGuy
Belgium

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by SweNedGuy »

No real XP farmer dares to say that stories are boring,
... or that the same stories are found in every course having them,
... that stories are very predictable ...

On the path (and using the website) you get max 1 story per day for 20 XP. Any repeat only adds 5 XP.

When we had the tree, stories were far too easy for the amount of XP awarded for reading.
Since 'crowns' have de facto been abandoned, there are no more 'crown gates' unlocking 'new stories' ...
and finally many courses don't have stories. Among my six courses only two have them.

Speaking :netherlands: :fr: :uk: :es: Learning :de:(B2-) :it:(B1) Image :sweden: :portugal: Image (A)

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SweNedGuy
Belgium

"The urge to cheat" - BBC R4 Digital Human

Post by SweNedGuy »

"The urge to cheat" - BBC R4 Digital Human

Interesting prog on Radio 4 (UK) just now, covering the urge to cheat online.
And, yes, winning DL's diamond league featured strongly...

"We all cheat at least a little bit, some of us in family games of monopoly others on their taxes. Aleks asks if the digital era has made that easier; with less apparent consequence and therefore more tempting? If that's the case where does that lead us.
Why for example would people hack the language learning app Duolingo to achieve an entirely meaningless high score, just to beat those of their fellow learners?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0010gg4

The segment on league cheating in Duolingo starts at 06:40.

Speaking :netherlands: :fr: :uk: :es: Learning :de:(B2-) :it:(B1) Image :sweden: :portugal: Image (A)

back4morelater
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by back4morelater »

Saperlipopette! wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:53 am

They did a great job with Duo for schools with leagues. You're now in a noncompetitive league with your classmates with no prizes, buckets, or demotion zones. You have access to the cooperative competition like daily quests, friends quests, and badges. You also have the social features too. It wouldn't be too hard to extend this to everyone -- have an option for a noncompetitive league which puts you in a league of thirty with no demotion zones or prizes. This would also give access to the cooperative challenges & social features.

And of course if you created a classroom for yourself just to avoid hearts and ads and are the only one in it, you have a league with just one person in it!

quasitraveler
Panama

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by quasitraveler »

I just came in 3rd place in the Diamond league last Sunday and was also one of the winners of the diamond league tournament finals (I had a bit over 15,000 XP. The guy who came in first place was posting 8,000 XP in the early morning and then again in the afternoon every day but Sunday where he posted 4,000 XP for a total of 100,000 XP. I work on Duolingo throughout each day when I get a break. I saw those around me actively on the app at various times but never saw him active. Last Thursday afternoon I finished up a few lessons and he had 56,000 XP at that time and still was not active. However, when I rejoined the app an hour later he now had a total of 64,000 XP and still was not actively on line with the app. I am 100% sure that this is not physically possible in an hour. It seems to be impossible to contact Duolingo so I am not sure how to handle this.

Saperlipopette!

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Saperlipopette! »

To report cheating you file a bug report.

Little girls face > wheel > user center > submit bug report. Type of issue is select abuse.

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Corinnebelle

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Corinnebelle »

Here's a link

🇺🇸 L1 🇮🇱 Advanced beginner Duolingo levels

Languages without borders, languages bridging gaps, the Red Cross are my heroes.

LearningFaster

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by LearningFaster »

But not everyone who is faster needs to be a cheater.

I saw someone with 75000XP a day there I'm sure it was not legal. I followed him and a couple of days later it seems he was banned, because his account doesn't exist anymore...

But with some strange strategies it's possible to earn a lot in a short time. With early bird and night owl chest you can get a xp boost. If you do it on two devices, in my case on an IPad and an Android device it is possible to get 4 of them every day. If they are used for example in speaking exercises and you use both devices beside it is possible to earn approximately 1000-1500 in 15 minutes.

Does this helps learning and improve your language skills? No
Is it fun? No

But from time to time I feel provocated and then the empire strikes back.

Last edited by Corinnebelle on Mon Oct 09, 2023 3:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Minor spelling errors
Arie Aine
Ireland

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Arie Aine »

Here's a theory. One of the main motivations I can see for someone to create bots to overwhelmed the XP system with ridiculously high numbers that can't be matched by people actually playing on the app is to disrupt that system. Maybe they just do it for fun because they like to mess around with people. Maybe they do it because they want to undermine Duolingo. I'm sure Duolingo has instituted this system of gamification in order to try to motivate users and generate a bit more compulsive behavior. I can say that that generally works even on those of us who are not inclined in that direction. If you are close to the cut off for staying in a league or for winning a top three slot, you are more likely to spend that extra five minutes to get there than you would be, if there was no such incentive, even if it doesn't really matter if you win the Duolingo leaderboard or not. It follows them that those who create the bots may be motivated by disrupting this aspect of the game for Duolingo users. Just a thought. I would think this might give Duolingo a reason to look into ridiculously high numbers. I know that my motivation to follow the leader boards and go the extra few minutes has definitely decreased over the past year when I have seen that it is no longer possible to win any diamond league leaderboard with human effort, not just sometimes, but ever anymore.

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

This is obviously an oldish thread. However, I'm moved to comment. I'm a new, very keen DuoLingo user, I think that it's great. Inevitably, even as adults, we can get caught up in XP and they are, under normal circumstances, a significant motivator. That motivation suffers significantly when you suspect that someone is manipulating the system in some way. We are at the end of a league week. I've worked extremely hard to get around 13K XP in the first 6 days and was 6K ahead of someone who somehow could clock 2-3K in a couple of hours on three other occasions in the week when they logged in. Last night I recorded that they had done 3600 in a single hour and having been 6k in front, this morning after only two hours of them logging on I am 4000XP behind....they have averaged 2500 XP per hour. To put that into perspective, I worked continually, with double point bonuses etc and had 583XP in a similar one hour period. I've contacted DuoLingo asking for an explanation of how this is humanly (not AI) possible...For now I'm loving how Duolingo is stimulating my learning but am disappointed that I can no longer apparently enjoy the fun of rewards earned transparently by just good old fashioned hard work.

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John Little
Brazil

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by John Little »

Moose wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2024 10:14 am

. I've worked extremely hard to get around 13K XP in the first 6 days and was 6K ahead of someone who somehow could clock 2-3K in a couple of hours on three other occasions in the week when they logged in.

Don't you just hate it when that happens? And some of them love to bait you, let think you're winning then pip you at the post, just for a laugh! Best to avoid it. It's bad for your health.

:)

John661162

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

Quite right John - I've got my head round it now but really good to hear from you. In fact I think that the Duo Buho works best with other resources so I've pointedly looked at vocab and grammar books this morning rather than focus on XP....I do await with interest though to see whether the wise Owl will come back to me with some thoughts on number boosting :)

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

So, the week is coming to an end. I've heard back from Duolingo (very efficient) and they are going to investigate what I've expereinced this week. It does appear that for some, winning the league/ acruing XP is a big focus. Doing the washing up this morning (!) an image came to mind...that of "winning in a Monopoly game" by introducing toy notes from another source e.g out of another game - yes, you won, but isn't it a little hollow? I'm going to try to attach an image of the scores. I've screened out the person's name. At the first arrow there was a 5000 XP difference between us (I was up)...I'd been chugging along steadiliy in the week. The other person in fact didn't add any on two days. Never mind though as at the point of the second arrow XP were added by the "winner" to neutralise the lead that I'd built. At the point of the third arrow more were added to create a 6000 lead......what was incomprehensible (to me) was that the XP were added at a rate of 3600 PER HOUR at one point and the slowest rate was around 2000 per hour....working flat out I put in 580 in an hour, using double XP bonuses etc. I'm at least intermediate in the language but given the time it takes to change screens..let's say 3600 XP in 55minutues you'd need to be gaining 65 XP every single minute, sustained for an hour.....some tasks give you 80XP on double points...may be bonuses were acrued but this rate happened not once but on three sustained occasions (for a couple of hours anyway) as the week closed, just saying!

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John Little
Brazil

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by John Little »

I still can't imagine how it's possible. I know Super gives you a big advantage but that is ....... odd.

John661162

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

Well I just don’t think that it is, legitimately, John. It seems that there are people offering ways to play the system (cheating is a nasty word) on the net. I’m in an airport lounge at present and the member in question has just added another 3000xp while I’ve added a few hundred in the same time! I really hope that our favourite owl somehow gets on top of this. Nevertheless it’s still a great learning resource 😁

Saperlipopette!

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Saperlipopette! »

I'm in schools, so I don't get public leagues by default. This week we turned the controls on. I'm in a league with 24 super accts and six regular accounts.

They said a few years ago that 5% of Duolingo users were subscriptions. Even if they doubled that, that's ten percent. The thing is, every time we turn the leagues off in the classroom, I get in a league with at least 50% paying to cheat with their super accounts. This week it's 80%. Some might be paying with soft dollars (such as on a trial subscription) but even considering that the numbers are whacked out.

I can play March Madness as much as I want which is not the case in our schools league. Thrillsville. March Madness would be better if you had the gender of the word to match, because that's really the kicker in remembering vocabulary.

There's no chance to win this league. It seems like Top Ten is a thing because they are eligible for a toe-ornament. Luckily my toes don't need ornamentation because I don't think Top Ten is viable. I suppose I'll do my usual work but supplement that with a few whirls at March Madness. By Friday, I'll have figured out if I have to make any adjustments to stay out of the demotion zone.

Saperlipopette!

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Saperlipopette! »

After one day, I'm putting myself on a 5K pace, & we'll see how that plays out. I think 4k is the demotion zone this week.

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Hoppi

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Hoppi »

I started my league yesterday. I saw one user reaching 20000 (twenty thousand) in a few hours. I have checked today. It's not passed a day yet but it (probably a bot) has reached 150000. Its profile is hidden. I cannot see any details when I select its profile.

This is not what a human can do. I have reported.

Last edited by Hoppi on Tue Jan 09, 2024 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cah2o

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by cah2o »

Once upon a time my children were in grade school. Whenever they complained about something in school I would listen and then ask, but did you learn anything? I never cared what grades they got. It's not about grades. It's about learning. Although teachers teach, it's up to the student to learn.

Grades are the reward. Whether good or bad, the question is still...but did you learn anything?

I'll tell you what I learned. I did an experiment when I was in high school. My grades were very good, but I wasn't learning anything. So I decided to fail every class. Guess what? By failing I learned and retained what I learned.

On the Duolingo app you used to only be able to use one 15 minute double points reward. Now you can stack those 15 minutes rewards points. And Duolingo is very generous with those 15 minute double rewards points. So what happens? You end up staying longer because 40 points is good but 80 points is even better. Less work in half the time...

...but did you learn anything?

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

You are completely right (in my opinion) and what you did was both brave and showed amazing maturity, especially at such a young age.
It remains a nice bonus to get ‘rewarded’ for hard work - that’s the child in me! The more grown up me realises that the end goal is fluency using this and other resources.
150,000 is staggering!!! Maybe bots have feelings/ need ‘to be the best’ as well!!
It’s been really helpful to chat with you all in this group about all this, so thank you ☺️

Saperlipopette!

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Saperlipopette! »

A few days ago I posted about the league I was in and I made some guesses on what would happen. Now the week is over & here's the tally.

Someone got demoted with 4467 XP. The other four demoted members gave up earlier in the week. See Exhibit A for the demotion zone.

Exhibit A. Demotion Zone

Image


Exhibit B. Rest of League

Here's how the rest of the league turned out.

Image


I'm back in schools this week. The Leagues game is rigged.

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

Hmmm, that’s certainly competitive. Have to say, when you mentioned a figure of 4K I thought that that was per DAY…but then I’d had someone in my group who did 3600 in one hour (humanly impossible but piece of cake for a bot)…a possible quirk in the system is the incentive to be ‘unrivalled’…as you’ll know, that means winning Diamond league once ((more is of no benefit)…if badges incentivise you. As the composition of the group changes there may well be a newbie who hasn’t achieved that and drives the XP up by chasing it.

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Explorer
Portugal

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Explorer »

I don't know if there are cheaters or not, but I see my leagues are getting harder and harder. There are always a couple of users that end up with over 30,000 points (the winner once got 72,000). Last week I finished in 22nd place with 6.000 points.

Obsidian league, here I go :D

🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 | Learning: 🇯🇵 |

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

Phew! Good luck 😁
See above comment re 150K too
I spent around 8h constantly on it yesterday (vv keen!) and clocked up around 6K so 72 K should mean around 14h every single day…just not credible really. Its a shame because the ‘fair’ competition in my group (18k) after a week was both stimulating and fun.

mattselkey
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by mattselkey »

I was wondering about this today myself.

This little python project could be one way its being achieved

https://github.com/drknzz/auto-lingo

I have no idea why anyone would want to do this, seems ridiculous to me 😂

Moose
Great Britain

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Moose »

It beggars belief really- a bit like spraying gold paint on lead bars …costs a bit, feels a teeny bit like the real thing but ultimately worthless. Thank you for sharing, I wondered what the cheat programme might look like. Hopefully the Duo team will be able to find ways of combating such albeit-clever facilitators of exercises in futility

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Corinnebelle

Re: Cheating in Duolingo?

Post by Corinnebelle »

mattselkey wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2024 6:53 pm

I was wondering about this today myself.

This little python project could be one way its being achieved

https://github.com/drknzz/auto-lingo

I have no idea why anyone would want to do this, seems ridiculous to me 😂

I've seen others.

🇺🇸 L1 🇮🇱 Advanced beginner Duolingo levels

Languages without borders, languages bridging gaps, the Red Cross are my heroes.

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