QUESTION IDEAS
Best Friend Quiz: 40 Questions to Ask Your BFF
40 questions to test your best friend, from the classics to what-if scenarios, plus tips to keep the score fun instead of a friendship contest.
Does your best friend really know which dessert you always order, which song gets you on the dance floor or what you’d do with a free plane ticket? Here are 40 questions in four levels, from easy to “we’ve been through everything together,” plus a few tips to keep the game a good time instead of a friendship contest.
Two ways to play
Face to face. You read the questions out loud and your friend answers as if they were you. Keep score on a napkin, then switch roles. It’s the liveliest version: every wrong answer turns into a story.
From anywhere, with a link. You answer ten multiple-choice questions once, then share the link in your group chat. Each friend guesses your answers from their phone and the leaderboard fills up. To set it up, create a quiz with the classic vibe or the party crew vibe; sharing is explained on the How to play page. The 40 questions below are for the out-loud version.
You can also mix the two: send the link a few days before you get together, then use the questions below to keep things going in person, over brunch or on a long drive.
Level 1: the classics
- My favorite color?
- My comfort food after a long week?
- Tea, coffee, hot chocolate or nothing at all?
- The last movie that made me cry… or laugh out loud?
- My most-used emoji?
- Am I a morning person or a night owl?
- My favorite ice cream flavor?
- The piece of clothing I wear the most?
- My favorite board game or video game?
- My usual order at a coffee shop?
Level 2: our shared memories
- Where did we meet?
- What was the first thing we did together, just the two of us?
- Which laughing fit do I still bring up?
- Which concert, show or game did we go to together?
- What nickname do you call me most often?
- What’s the worst idea we’ve ever had together?
- Which trip or weekend is my favorite memory with you?
- Which gift from you do I treasure?
- Which song reminds us of one specific night?
- What did we share at our favorite spot?
Level 3: “what if…” scenarios
- If I won a free plane ticket, where would I go?
- If I could have a superpower for one day, which one would I pick?
- If I had to eat the same meal for a month, what would it be?
- If I opened a store, what would I sell?
- If I were an animal, which one would I be?
- If I could meet one celebrity, who would I choose?
- If someone handed me a year off, what would I do first?
- If I had to go on a TV show, which one would it be?
- If I could live in another era, which one would I choose?
- If I could master an instrument overnight, which one?
Level 4: what matters to me
- Which quality do I value most in a friend?
- What have I been proud of lately?
- How do I like to be cheered up?
- Which small gesture means more to me than a big gift?
- What would I learn if I had more time?
- Which place makes me feel at home?
- What advice do I often give other people?
- What makes me lose track of time?
- What’s my favorite way to celebrate good news?
- Which childhood dream haven’t I made come true yet?
These last questions are more personal. Save them for one-on-one time, and always let people pass.
Choosing the right answer options
If you turn these questions into a multiple-choice quiz, offer four believable answers. One silly answer next to three serious ones stands out right away and makes the question too easy. Also pick questions whose answer doesn’t change every week: “my comfort food” works better than “what I ate yesterday.” Our guide to writing good quiz questions walks through these rules with examples.
Going further: the 36 questions to feel closer
If you’re looking for a deeper conversation than a quiz, there’s a well-known exercise that comes out of psychology research. In 1997, Arthur Aron and his colleagues published a 36-question procedure designed to create closeness between two people. The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley offers a practical version: three sets of questions, each one more probing than the last, answered in turn, over about 45 minutes. The practice suggests giving each set roughly a third of that time and moving on to the next set when time is up, even if you haven’t finished the current one.
Despite its reputation as a “way to fall in love,” the practice page explains that the exercise is useful with anyone you want to feel close to, including friends, coworkers and family members, as long as both people are comfortable sharing personal thoughts and feelings. It isn’t a points game: nobody wins, the point is to listen. Save it for a quiet moment, away from the noise of a party.
Don’t turn friendship into a ranking
When several friends take the same quiz, a leaderboard appears. It’s fun, but it can also sting: a longtime friend who gets your recent tastes wrong isn’t a “fake friend.” A few simple habits help:
- Say from the start that the score is just a game and says nothing about your friendship.
- Don’t post a screenshot of the leaderboard with a caption like “she doesn’t even know me.”
- Celebrate the most surprising answer rather than the highest score.
- Let people who don’t want to play sit it out, without pushing them.
And if you end up with the lowest score, laugh it off: “Wait, since when do you like jazz?” is often the best moment of the whole game.
Keep the game going
Does your best friend live far away? These long-distance games for friends work on a video call or over text. Got a whole crew? Try the friendship quiz variations, like the round robin where everyone takes everyone else’s quiz. And before you send a link, read up on the questions you should never share: some answers look a lot like the security questions for online accounts.