Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a user equipment (UE) may determine, for a device-to-device communication with another UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) configuration, of a set of MCS configurations, based at least in part on at least one of a transmission mode, a packet characteristic, a mobility state of the UE, a capability of the UE, a transmission mode of the device-to-device communication, a received indication from the other UE, or a combination thereof. The UE may transmit, to the other UE, data using an MCS selected based at least in part on the MCS configuration. Numerous other aspects are provided.