Medals, the Dark Horse race and the activity map

A ranking has one problem: only a few people can be at the top. Kaggle has more than 23 million accounts and has made 612 Grandmasters in its history. If winning were the only way to progress, almost everyone would stop. This release gives the other 99% three ways to keep moving.

34 medals across seven tracks

Medals now cover the whole journey, in seven tracks: Basics, English, Build, Arena, Showcase, Streaks and Talent. Each medal has one of four tiers: bronze, silver, gold or legend.

Some examples:

• Basics: link your accounts, then type at 30, 60 and 90 words a minute.
• English: finish your first unit, then ten, then all four tracks for Polyglot.
• Arena: win your first duel, finish a week in the promotion zone, help your country onto the cup podium.
• Streaks: 7, 30 and 100 active days in a row. The 100-day medal is called Khan Tengri.

The medals screen shows earned medals first, then the locked ones with a progress bar for each, grouped by track. Medals never reset between seasons.

The Dark Horse race

The Rank tab gets a fourth view next to the main ladder: Dark Horse. It ranks players not by where they stand, but by how far they climbed this week. Each row shows the rank gained, and the week's leader gets the horse badge. Winning it earns the Dark Horse of the week medal, one of the legend tier.

This race is for the player who joined last month and is closing in fast. On the main ladder they are still in the middle. In the Dark Horse race they can be first.

The activity map

Profiles and the Talent passport now carry a GitHub-style activity map: 84 days in a 12-week grid, one cell per day, shaded in five steps by how much was done. Under it: active days and the current streak.

Streaks matter. Duolingo found that a 10-day streak sharply reduces dropout. For employers, the map is also an honest signal: it shows steady work over time, not one lucky week.

Medals, the activity map and the Dark Horse race are in the app now, in Kyrgyz, Russian and English.