Competing on the junior level, they placed fifth at the Ice Challenge and won silver at the Pavel Roman Memorial.

They won bronze in late August at the JGP in Courchevel, France, but finished ninth the following month in Tallinn, Estonia.

They finished fourth, outscored for the bronze medal by Elliana Pogrebinsky / Alex Benoit, resulting in the loss of their provisional assignment to Zagreb, Croatia.

In January 2016, they won the bronze medal at the Russian Junior Championships, behind Alla Loboda / Pavel Drozd and Betina Popova / Yuri Vlasenko.

[4] In February, Shpilevaya/Smirnov won gold at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Hamar, Norway, having placed first in both segments.

They beat the silver medalist and the favourites, Alla Loboda / Pavel Drozd, by almost 6 points, mainly due to the costly fall that Lododa had in the free dance.

[9] In September 2021, it was confirmed that Smirnov had switched federations to compete with American ice dancer Avonley Nguyen for the United States after Shpilevaya was forced to end her career.

[10] They were scheduled to make their U.S. Championship debut in January 2022, but withdrew after Smirnov suffered a hip injury.