8 Astonishing Facts About Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker

Duolingo is a language learning app that has been fans’ favorite due to a ton of marketing, memes, and gamification.

But how did the language learning app become so hyped, and who is the mastermind behind the owl?

Let’s look at some of the facts about Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker.

8. Early Life And Begining Of Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker

Severin Hacker was born on 6 July 1984 and is from a Swiss background. Severin was raised in Zug and spent most of his childhood there.

If you are wondering Severin’s last name is actually “Hacker.”

7. From Academic All-Star to Tech Entrepreneur

Severin was brilliant from the start, but he was not an average Joe.

Hacker was a genius from the start and excelled in his academics and he completed his Ph.D. from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in 2014.

Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker. Image Credit: Social Media.

Earlier, Hacker completed his BSc in computer science from ETH Zürich in 2006.

6. The Birth of Duolingo

Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker wasn’t just book smart! He always had a vision of entrepreneurship and has serious coding skills.

With all the skills Severin had, Duolingo was formed when he and Duolingo CEO Luis Von Ahn decided to launch the app publicly.

Duolingo was created by both of these geniuses in 2011, and the goal was to make language easy and accessible like never before.

5. The Gamification in Duolingo

One main reason Duolingo ignores its media presence is its gamification nature.

The whole app is designed with a reward system, leaderboards, and engaging elements, just like a video game.

This was an instant success and made the users more motivated.

Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker. Image Credit: Social Media.

Also, Severin is a huge fan of video games, and creating them is probably the reason why Duolingo was gamified.

Hacker stated his love for video games stating

“What originally drew me to computers was video games and the desire to build your games and understand how those games are built. I was somewhat obsessed.”

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4. Beyond the App

Duolingo’s reach was just in smartphones, but hackers with his vision developed Duolingo for schools.

This is perfect for his growth and to make language learning easier in the classrooms.

3. A Passion for Education

Hacker didn’t get into this position purely out of luck.

Severin is very good at distributed systems, data mining, human-computer interaction, programming, Mattlab, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and many more.

Not only is Hacker a genius himself, but he is also a strong advocate for making education accessible and engaging.

Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker. Image Credit: Social Media.

This can be seen in his actions since Severin has made huge changes in how people learn language, and his workplace is also very inspiring.

2. The Power of Big Data

Hacker knows the power of data, and their leadership in implementing data-driven approaches cannot be ignored.

Duolingo can personalize the learning experience for each user, and following his Twitter, the hacker always makes his moves based on proven and accurate data.

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1. Awards and honors

Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker has won many prizes and awards for his work in Duolingo.

Hacker won the Crunchie Award for Best Startup and was in MIT Technology Review’s “Top Innovators under 35 list in 2014.

Severin won the Tech 50 award in 2016 and One Young World’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2019.

The Future of Tech

With hackers at the top and leading Duolingo technology, the future of learning language looks bright.

Severin also hand-picks his team members, which is also one of the reasons for this success.

Although Hacker’s personal life is very private, his life is filled with innovation, dedication, and passion for tech.

Sserverin worked as an intern at Microsoft and later created Duolingo which is amazing and inspirational.

By the looks of his success, it doesn’t look like Hacker will stop or slow down anytime soon.

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