How does the Duolingo English Test monitor you?
Every DET session runs in Duolingo's desktop app while your smartphone records you from a second angle, and the whole sitting — computer screen, phone camera, microphone, keyboard, and mouse — is recorded end to end. A 360-degree room scan happens before the test. After you finish, trained human proctors working with AI review the session for more than 75 different behaviors across multiple independent rounds before a result is certified. Everything below is general process, described exactly as Duolingo publishes it — and since security policies can change, confirm the current rules on Duolingo's official pages before you book.
Two cameras, one app: the recording setup
The DET does not run in an ordinary browser tab. You install Duolingo's desktop app, and before the scored section begins, you pair your smartphone as a second camera: you scan a QR code with the phone's own camera, grant it access to motion sensors and camera, and prop it up so it captures your head, shoulders, screen, and keyboard for the whole test.
That phone angle is not decoration. Duolingo's security page states each session is recorded via computer, phone camera, microphone, keyboard, and mouse — the phone view is what shows your hands and keyboard while the webcam shows your face. Interfering with the phone camera recording is a published rule violation.
The one-hour structure Duolingo publishes is five minutes of setup and ID verification, 45 minutes of scored adaptive assessment, and ten minutes of writing and speaking samples. The video interview and writing sample from that closing block go to institutions alongside your score — recipients can review them directly.
The 360-degree room scan, step by step
Before the test, the app walks you through a room scan on your phone: point it at your computer with the entire screen and keyboard in frame, slowly turn a full 360-degree circle to capture the room, then point down at the keyboard and move forward over the computer to show the area behind the screen. Duolingo's help article also tells you to charge the phone fully, turn on Do Not Disturb, and close out anything that could interrupt the recording.
The scan has a defined failure mode: if it does not clearly capture a 360-degree view, your result is invalidated as a technical error — retakeable at no additional cost if you still have attempts on your credit, but the sitting you just did does not count.
This is the same category of check every major at-home proctoring system runs: prove the room contains you, the equipment, and nothing else. OnVUE does it with a webcam sweep at check-in; ETS has the proctor direct a 360 view during check-in; the DET front-loads it into the app flow with your own phone.
What the published rules prohibit during the test
Duolingo's official Test Policies, Rules, and Requirements page lists the during-test rules directly: don't look away from the screen except when typing; don't memorize or read answers from other sources; don't take notes or record questions; don't type or speak until instructed; take the test alone and don't interact with anyone; keep your head, shoulders, screen, and keyboard in the phone camera's frame.
The computer-setup rules are just as specific: no virtual machine; disable software with predictive text, proofreading, typing suggestions, or reference functions and use a standard input method; close every program other than the desktop app — browsers, telecommunication apps, streaming apps, and remote desktop software are all named; remove paper and notes; use only one keyboard, mouse, and phone; stay in frame with ears, eyes, and mouth visible; remove extra screens, headphones, and earbuds; remove glasses and magnetic earrings before the ear scan.
The general rules bound the whole engagement: up to three tests can be purchased in any 30-day period, a test credit is valid 21 days from purchase, one account per person with no sharing, and a valid government ID is required.
What actually cancels a Duolingo English Test
Duolingo's help center names the cancellation triggers explicitly. Clicking on or opening anything other than the test application cancels the test. Leaving fullscreen mode cancels the test. The desktop app losing access to your camera or microphone cancels the test — and Duolingo notes that can follow connection problems or interference from other programs, which is why it recommends wired internet over Wi-Fi, no mobile hotspots, closing every other program and notification, and having other people on your network disconnect during the test.
Every cancellation means retaking from the beginning, and every started attempt counts against your credit: one credit (one Certified Result) buys three attempts to complete and upload a test. Technical errors and certain rule outcomes allow a no-cost retake while attempts remain — but two tests with Rule Violations on the same credit expire it.
The policy ladder above that is published too: Possible Misconduct immediately expires the credit, a pattern of violations across 365 days can suspend the account for a year, and Evident Misconduct — Duolingo's example is having an impersonator take the test — permanently blocks the account. That last line is stated plainly because it is the honest risk picture: identity fraud on this test is a permanent, appealable-but-serious outcome, not a slap on the wrist.
What happens after you finish
Certification is not automatic. Your session goes to review: Duolingo's security page describes trained professionals examining each session for more than 75 different behaviors in multiple independent rounds, with AI and data forensics supporting the process — millions of daily data points train the algorithms that flag rule breaking and suspicious patterns. Standard results are certified within two days; a Faster Results purchase shortens that to 12 hours but, per Duolingo, changes nothing about the proctoring and does not guarantee certification.
ID verification runs through the same pipeline: computer vision, AI, and trained proctors all check that the person on camera matches the ID submitted. An ID problem does not force a full retake — you resubmit valid ID — but it does hold your result.
The exam content itself is also built against exposure: Duolingo states the adaptive engine draws from a vast item database such that a test taker would need over 1,000 attempts to see a repeat question. That is the published design; Duolingo does not publish how its review algorithms weigh any individual signal, and this page will not speculate.
The honest summary
The DET's security model is: a locked app, two cameras, a recorded everything, a structured room scan, published rules with named cancellation triggers, and multi-round human-plus-AI review before any result certifies. It is a serious system, described here only in the general categories Duolingo itself publishes.
If the sitting itself is the obstacle — the one quiet hour, the pacing, the pressure of a recorded session — that is the gap a handled sitting addresses: Exam Assist handles exam sittings end to end, and the service fee is due only after the agreed result posts. If instead you want to understand the landscape of home proctoring generally, our OnVUE and ETS Secure Browser explainers cover the same ground for those systems.