150 questions to ask your friends: fun, deep and juicy

You can know someone for ten years and still not know what they would do with a free Tuesday, what they are quietly proud of, or which small thing annoys them most. Good questions to ask your friends are how those gaps close. They also fix the most common friendship problem: talking a lot without ever saying anything new.

Here are 150 questions to ask friends, sorted from fun to deep. The juicy section is honest and revealing without being explicit, so everything here works in a group chat, on a video call or with a new friend you met online. For someone you have just met, the “new friends” section is the place to start.

How to use these

• Answer too. A question you would not answer yourself is an interrogation.
• Send one at a time in a group chat. A list of ten gets one reply.
• Follow up on the answer before moving to the next question.
• Let people pass. “Skip” is a fine answer to anything on this list.

Fun questions to ask friends

1. What is the most useless talent you have?
2. If you had to eat one meal every day for a year, what would it be?
3. What is a small thing that instantly improves your day?
4. Which fictional character would you swap lives with for a week?
5. What is your most irrational fear?
6. What is the worst haircut you have ever had?
7. If your life had a theme song, what would it be right now?
8. What is a food you refuse to try?
9. What would your walk-on music be?
10. What was your favourite toy as a child?
11. What is the strangest thing you have searched for online this week?
12. If you were a kitchen appliance, which one would you be?
13. What is your go-to karaoke song?
14. Which app do you waste the most time on?
15. What is your unpopular food opinion?
16. What would you name a boat?
17. What is your signature dish, even if it is just toast?
18. What is the most impulsive thing you have bought?
19. Which emoji do you use far too much?
20. What is your default order at a coffee shop?
21. If you could only listen to one artist for a year, who?
22. What is the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
23. What is your pettiest hill to die on?
24. Which animal do you think you would be in another life?
25. What is your most-used excuse?

Questions to ask friends to get to know them better

1. What did you want to be when you were ten?
2. Which part of your routine would you never give up?
3. What is something you have changed your mind about recently?
4. What is a skill you would love to learn this year?
5. What do you do when you have a whole free day?
6. What is a compliment you have never forgotten?
7. Which of your habits would surprise people who only know you at work or school?
8. What is a book, film or album that shaped you?
9. What is your favourite way to spend a rainy weekend?
10. How do you recharge after a hard week?
11. What is your favourite thing about where you live?
12. What is one thing on your bucket list that is actually realistic?
13. What do you think you are better at than most people?
14. Which tradition, family or otherwise, do you love?
15. What is a place you could go back to again and again?
16. What is something you have never told anyone is your favourite?
17. What did you learn the hard way?
18. What is the best decision you have made in the last five years?
19. What do you think you will be doing in ten years?
20. What kind of old person do you want to be?
21. What is a song that takes you straight back to a specific moment?
22. What is your favourite thing to do alone?
23. What are you saving up for, money or courage?
24. What is the best meal you have ever had, and who was there?
25. What is one rule you live by?

Deep questions to ask your best friend

1. What do you think is the best thing about our friendship?
2. What is something you are proud of that you rarely mention?
3. When have you felt most like yourself?
4. What are you afraid of that you do not usually admit?
5. What is a hard thing you are dealing with right now?
6. What has been the biggest turning point in your life?
7. What do you need more of from the people around you?
8. What is something you wish people understood about you?
9. When was the last time you cried, and what was it about?
10. What would you do if you could not fail?
11. What do you think I underestimate about myself?
12. What is one thing you would change about the way you were raised?
13. What is a belief you hold that most people around you do not?
14. Who has had the biggest influence on the person you are?
15. What is something you have forgiven that was hard to forgive?
16. What do you want your life to look like in five years, honestly?
17. What is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?
18. What does being a good friend mean to you?
19. What do you wish you had said to someone but never did?
20. What is something you are still learning to accept about yourself?
21. What makes you feel loved?
22. When do you feel lonely, even around people?
23. What is one thing you would like us to do together before we are old?
24. What do you think happens after we die, and does it change how you live?
25. What is one thing you have never asked me but wanted to?

For more of these, see deep questions to ask.

Juicy questions to ask friends (clean, but revealing)

Juicy does not have to mean rude. These get honest answers because they are a little embarrassing, not because they are explicit.

1. What is the most embarrassing thing you have done in public?
2. What is a lie you told as a child that you never corrected?
3. Who was your first crush, and do they know?
4. What is the pettiest reason you have stopped talking to someone?
5. What is something you pretend to like?
6. What is the worst gift you have ever given?
7. Have you ever re-gifted something? To whom?
8. What is the most awkward date or meet-up you have been on?
9. What is a secret talent you have never shown anyone?
10. What is the biggest risk you have taken that nobody knows about?
11. What is a text you regret sending?
12. What is the longest you have gone without showering, honestly?
13. What is something you got away with at school?
14. Have you ever pretended to be busy to avoid plans? What was the excuse?
15. What is the most childish thing you still do?
16. Which of your friends would you trust with a secret, and which not?
17. What is the strangest compliment you have received?
18. What is your guilty-pleasure TV show?
19. What have you cried at that you would never admit to?
20. What rumour about you was actually true?
21. What is the worst advice you have ever followed?
22. What is a purchase you hid from someone?
23. Have you ever laughed at the wrong moment? Where?
24. What is a habit you have that would horrify your parents?
25. What is one thing you would do if you were invisible for a day?

Would-you-rather and hypothetical questions for friends

1. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
2. Would you rather know how you will die or when?
3. If you won a large sum tomorrow, what is the first sensible thing and the first silly thing you would buy?
4. If you could have dinner with anyone alive, who, and what would you ask?
5. Would you rather live without music or without films?
6. If you had to move to another country tomorrow, which one?
7. Would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button for your life?
8. If you could master any instrument instantly, which?
9. Would you rather always be ten minutes late or twenty minutes early?
10. If you could send one message to yourself at 15, what would it say?
11. Would you rather be famous or be the best friend of someone famous?
12. If animals could talk, which would be the rudest?
13. Would you rather give up your phone or your car for a month?
14. If you could relive one day, which?
15. Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the smartest?

There are 150 more in would you rather questions and 100 in hypothetical questions.

Questions to ask new friends

For someone you have just met, online or in person. None of these ask where they live, work or study.

1. What are you into at the moment?
2. What is something you could talk about for an hour?
3. What kind of music have you had on repeat lately?
4. What is the best thing you have watched this year?
5. Are you a planner or a wing-it person?
6. What is a hobby you picked up recently, or want to?
7. What is your ideal weekend?
8. Coffee, tea, or neither?
9. What is a place you would love to visit?
10. What is a small thing that made you happy this week?
11. Do you prefer cities, beaches or mountains?
12. What game, board or video, have you sunk the most hours into?
13. What is a food from your country or region that everyone should try?
14. Are you more of a texter or a caller?
15. What is something you are looking forward to?
16. What is a skill you would like to learn?
17. What was the last thing you learned by accident?
18. What do you do to switch off?
19. What is your comfort film?
20. What is something people are often surprised to learn about you?

More openers for a first conversation are in how to start a conversation with a stranger and get to know you questions.

Questions for a group chat or a game night

1. Who in this group would survive longest in a zombie film, and why?
2. What is the group’s most memorable shared moment?
3. Who is most likely to become famous?
4. What is one thing each person here does that the rest of us love?
5. If we started a business together, what would it be?
6. Who is the best cook, and who should never cook?
7. What is a trip we should actually take?
8. Who would be the best at a survival show?
9. What was the first impression each of us made?
10. What is something none of us has done that we all should?
11. Who is most likely to forget a birthday?
12. What would our group name be if we were a band?
13. Which of us has changed the most since we met?
14. What is the best advice anyone in this group has given?
15. What is one thing we should do more often?

Where these questions work

In person, in a group chat, on a call, and in a random chat with someone new. RandomHey pairs you with one random adult for a text chat or video chat, so the new-friends section is a good place to start there. There are no friend lists or profiles: a chat ends when it ends, which is exactly why a good question matters more than a good bio. If the conversation is going well and you want it to continue, how to make friends online covers how to do that safely.