There is no Duolingo English Test paper to practise from, past or present. The test is computer adaptive: the questions come from a very large pool, the difficulty of some items shifts with your performance, and even the number of questions varies from one test taker to the next. Duolingo says it is highly unlikely you will ever see the same question twice. So "previous year questions" do not exist for this exam — what you can practise is each question type, until none of them costs you time to understand. The items below are drawn from the Myndaq practice bank and are not reproductions of any official item. They are grouped by type, with the answer and the rule that decides it, alongside the Myndaq Duolingo English Test course.
The pattern you are practising for
- About one hour in total: about 5 minutes of onboarding and security checks, an adaptive section of about 45 minutes, and about 10 minutes for the Writing Sample and Speaking Sample.
- Typical frequencies in one test (they vary by test taker): Read and Select 15–18; Fill in the Blanks 6–9; Read and Complete 3–6; Listen and Type 6–9; Interactive Reading 2 sets of 6 questions; Interactive Listening 2 sets of 8–10; Write About the Photo 3; Interactive Writing 1 set of 2; one each of Speak About the Photo, Read Then Speak, Interactive Speaking, Writing Sample and Speaking Sample.
- No extra penalty for wrong answers: a wrong answer is not penalised more than a skipped one, and partly correct answers earn partial credit. Always answer.
- Scale: 10 to 160 in 5-point steps, with four skill subscores and four integrated subscores. No pass mark; each university sets its own minimum.
The exact screens differ from these written versions — you click, type and listen on the real test. How each type looks on screen is best seen in Duolingo's official walkthrough video and practice test. What transfers from written practice is the judgement each type demands. The one-line description at the head of each type below is how the Myndaq bank models it, not a quotation from Duolingo; the scoring rules quoted are Duolingo's.
Read and Select
In this type you decide, quickly, whether a string of letters is a real English word. Some are real; some are invented to look plausible. With up to 18 of these in a test, speed and certainty matter more than on any other type.
Question 1. Is this a real English word: tenaculous?
Answer: No. It echoes the real adjective tenacious and the -ulous ending of credulous, but it is not in any dictionary. A plausible shape is exactly how the invented words are built.
Question 2. Is this a real English word: obfuscate?
Answer: Yes. A genuine verb meaning to make something obscure or unclear, common in academic writing.
Question 3. Is this a real English word: redolescent?
Answer: No. A blend of the real word redolent (fragrant) with the -escent suffix of convalescent. Near-miss morphology is the commonest trap: if you only half-recognise a word, ask whether you have seen that exact form.
Question 4. Is this a real English word: sanguine?
Answer: Yes. A real adjective meaning optimistic or cheerfully confident; it also names a blood-red colour.
Question 5. Is this a real English word: manoeuvre?
Answer: Yes. The British spelling of the American maneuver. Both spellings are real words, so do not reject a word because its spelling differs from the one you learned.
The method. Decide on sight and move on. Candidates lose more time second-guessing real words they know than they gain from reconsidering invented ones.
Read and Complete
Here a text has parts of words missing, and you type the missing letters. The first letters of each word are given. Grammar and meaning both constrain the answer — the surrounding sentence usually rules out all but one word.
Question 6. Type the missing letters: She decided to rep___ her old bicycle before selling it to a neighbor.
Answer: repair. "Decided to" needs a verb, and "before selling it" tells you what you would do to an old bicycle first. Repeat and report fit the letters but not the meaning.
Question 7. Type the missing letters: The professor urged students to be more metic_____ when analyzing complex sources.
Answer: meticulous. "More ___" needs an adjective, and the stem metic- has one common completion. Hard items in this type usually test a lower-frequency academic word, not grammar.
Question 8. Type the missing letters in each word:
The human brain uses a large amount of energy every day. Even wh__ we ar_ resting, i_ continues t_ process inf________ and co______ our bo__ functions wi_____ any effort. Scientists still find its efficiency remarkable.
Answer: when, are, it, to, information, controls, body, without. Work the short grammar words first — when, are, it, to — because they lock the sentence structure, then fill the content words. Co______ could be several verbs; "our body functions" as its object makes it controls.
The rule to remember. In Read and Complete a blank and a wrong answer score the same, so type your best guess into every gap, and check the plural and tense endings before moving on.
Listen and Type
You hear a sentence and type what you heard. Duolingo's scoring rule is specific: you are penalised more for missing a word than for mistyping one. A web page cannot play the practice audio, so each sentence is shown below as what you would hear.
Question 9. You hear: "Despite years of rigorous training, the young violinist still felt nervous whenever she performed before large crowds."
What to type: the sentence exactly, every word in order. The words most often dropped in dictation are the short ones — of, the, she — and the unstressed still. If you are unsure how to spell rigorous, type your best attempt rather than leaving a gap: a misspelling costs less than a missing word.
Question 10. You hear: "Although the experiment initially failed, the researchers refined their methods and eventually published surprisingly compelling results."
What to type: the full sentence. Two adverbs in a row — eventually, then surprisingly — are where candidates lose a word, because the ear hears one "-ly" rhythm. Keep the structure in your head (Although A, B and C) and check you have three verbs: failed, refined, published.
The method. Listen once for structure, then type while replaying the sentence in your head. Complete wording is what the scoring rule rewards.
Interactive Reading — one full set
Interactive Reading gives you one passage and a sequence of linked tasks on it. Duolingo's scoring section names the tasks: Complete the Sentences, Complete the Passage, Highlight the Answer, Identify the Idea and Title the Passage. The set below follows that sequence. The passage appears first with gaps, then with a missing sentence, then whole.
Question 11a — Complete the Sentences. Choose the best word for each gap.
Honeybees play a vital role in growing the food we eat. As they (1) ___ from flower to flower to collect nectar, they carry pollen with them. This process, called pollination, (2) ___ many plants produce fruits and seeds. Without bees, farmers would (3) ___ to grow crops such as apples, almonds, and (4) ___. In recent years, however, bee populations have (5) ___ in several countries.
- (1) sleep / move / argue / paint / count
- (2) helps / stops / forgets / buys / hides
- (3) refuse / celebrate / struggle / pretend / laugh
- (4) engines / berries / bridges / clouds / letters
- (5) declined / applauded / printed / cooked / traveled
Answer: move, helps, struggle, berries, declined. Each gap has one option that fits both grammar and meaning. Gap 4 is solved by the list — apples, almonds, and ___ needs another crop. Gap 5 is signalled by however: after three sentences on how useful bees are, the passage turns to a problem.
Question 11b — Complete the Passage. Which sentence best fills the gap?
Scientists blame a mix of causes, including disease, loss of habitat, and the heavy use of chemical sprays. Some farmers now plant wildflowers near their fields to give bees more food. Others are reducing the sprays that harm insects. _____ Protecting bees is not only good for nature but also essential for feeding people around the world.
- A. These small changes can make a real difference.
- B. Most people prefer honey to other sweeteners.
- C. Bees are the only insects that can fly long distances.
- D. Chemical sprays are the cheapest tool available to farmers.
Answer: A. The gap sits between two examples of farmers' actions and the conclusion. These small changes points back to the wildflowers and reduced spraying, and a real difference leads into the concluding sentence. B and C are off-topic; D pulls the paragraph back towards the problem just as it moves to the solution.
The full passage for the remaining tasks:
Honeybees play a vital role in growing the food we eat. As they move from flower to flower to collect nectar, they carry pollen with them. This process, called pollination, helps many plants produce fruits and seeds. Without bees, farmers would struggle to grow crops such as apples, almonds, and berries. In recent years, however, bee populations have declined in several countries. Scientists blame a mix of causes, including disease, loss of habitat, and the heavy use of chemical sprays. Some farmers now plant wildflowers near their fields to give bees more food. Others are reducing the sprays that harm insects. These small changes can make a real difference. Protecting bees is not only good for nature but also essential for feeding people around the world.
Question 11c — Highlight the Answer. Highlight the words in the passage that answer: What is the process of carrying pollen between flowers called?
Answer: "pollination". Highlight only the answer. The whole sentence contains it, but a highlight that includes surrounding words is less precise.
Question 11d — Highlight the Answer. What do some farmers plant near their fields to help bees?
Answer: "wildflowers".
Question 11e — Identify the Idea. What is the main idea of the passage?
- A. Bees are harmful to most food crops.
- B. Protecting bees matters for both nature and the food supply.
- C. Farmers no longer need bees to grow crops.
- D. Chemical sprays have increased bee populations.
Answer: B. The final sentence states it almost word for word. A, C and D each contradict the passage.
Question 11f — Title the Passage. Which is the best title?
- A. Why Bees Matter for Our Food
- B. How to Make Honey at Home
- C. The History of Farming Tools
- D. Dangerous Insects in the Garden
Answer: A. A title covers the whole passage — the role of bees, the threat and the response — not one detail. B borrows the idea of honey, which the passage never discusses.
The method. The set is sequential, so later tasks reuse what you worked out earlier. By the time you reach Identify the Idea you have read the passage three times; answer it in seconds.
How to use practice like this
Duolingo's own advice is that immersion in English, not cramming, moves your score: its guide says intense studying right before the test will not change it. Practice by type does something narrower but real: it removes the cost of working out what a screen is asking you to do. Aim to know every type well enough that the first seconds of each item go on the English, not on the instructions — then spend the rest of your preparation reading, listening, writing and speaking in English. For the full structure and scoring rules, see the DET syllabus and question types; for what you buy and the rules that can cost you a test, see DET fees, bundles and results.
Quick answers
Are there Duolingo English Test past papers?
No. The test is adaptive and drawn from a very large question pool, so there is no fixed paper. Practise by question type instead.
How many questions are on the DET?
It varies. The test gives more or fewer questions depending on how confident its grading engine is about your score.
Should I guess if I am unsure?
Yes. Duolingo says a wrong answer is not penalised more than a skipped one, and partial credit is given.
What matters most in Listen and Type?
Getting every word down. A missing word costs more than a misspelled one.
Which question type appears most often?
Read and Select, at 15 to 18 in a typical test, according to Duolingo's guide.
