Personal Trivia Questions for Friends: 60 Questions About Yourself and Each Other

Personal trivia is a quiz where the answers are facts about the people playing: first jobs, childhood habits, worst haircuts. Each player answers about themselves, and everyone else guesses or checks. A group of four to eight with a pen and paper is enough, and a round of 10 questions takes about 15 minutes.

How to play

There are two common formats. In “how well do you know me,” one person writes down answers to a set of questions in advance, and the others guess. In “about yourself” trivia, everyone answers the same questions privately, then the group guesses who wrote which answer.

Score one point per correct guess. Ties are settled with a tiebreaker question that has a number as the answer, such as “How many countries have you visited?” The closest guess wins.

Keep questions factual. “What was your first car?” has an answer. “What is your biggest regret?” does not make a good quiz question and tends to stall the game.

Early life and childhood

These work for almost any group because everyone has an answer, and the answers are usually surprising.

1. What was your first pet’s name?
2. What was the first concert you attended?
3. What did you want to be when you were ten?
4. What was your favorite cartoon as a kid?
5. Which school subject did you like least?
6. What was your childhood nickname?
7. What was the first thing you remember cooking?
8. Did you ever break a bone? Which one?
9. What was your first phone?
10. Which city were you born in?
11. What was your favorite snack in elementary school?
12. What was the first video game you played regularly?

Food, habits and daily life

Habit questions produce the most arguments, since friends often think they know the answer and are wrong.

1. What is your usual coffee or tea order?
2. How many hours of sleep do you need to feel normal?
3. What is the one food you refuse to eat?
4. What do you cook when you do not feel like cooking?
5. Are you a morning person or a night person?
6. What is the first app you open in the morning?
7. How do you take your eggs?
8. What is your go-to karaoke song?
9. What is the longest you have gone without your phone?
10. Do you sleep with a fan, white noise or silence?
11. What is your most-played song this year?
12. What is in your bag or pockets right now?

Travel and experiences

Number answers in this section work well for tiebreakers.

1. How many countries have you visited?
2. What is the farthest you have been from home?
3. Have you ever been on a plane that had to turn around?
4. What is the best meal you have eaten while traveling?
5. Which state or country would you move to tomorrow?
6. Have you ever been camping? How many nights?
7. What is the longest road trip you have taken?
8. What was your first job?
9. What is the strangest job you have ever had?
10. Have you ever met someone famous? Who?
11. What is a skill you taught yourself?
12. What is something you have won, even a small prize?

Preferences and opinions

Use these when the group already knows each other well and the earlier rounds are too easy.

1. Cats or dogs?
2. Beach or mountains?
3. What movie have you watched the most times?
4. What is your favorite season, and why?
5. What is the last book you finished?
6. What is your biggest pet peeve?
7. Which superpower would you pick?
8. What is your favorite holiday?
9. What is your favorite smell?
10. What is your ideal Saturday?
11. What is your most used emoji?
12. What is a movie you pretend to have seen?

Variations for larger groups

With more than eight people, split into teams and let each team write answers for one member. Rotate whose answers are used each round.

For a video call, have each person submit answers in a private message to the host, who reads them aloud without names. Players guess in the chat.

For a more traditional quiz night, mix personal rounds with general-knowledge ones. Our 90s trivia questions and New Year’s Eve trivia both have answer keys and run well as a second round. For a lighter break between rounds, the worst jokes of all time fills a few minutes.

FAQ

How many questions should a personal trivia round have?

Ten per round is a good size. Past 15, players lose track of who said what.

What if someone does not want to answer a question?

Let them pass and swap in a spare. Prepare a few extras in each category for this reason.

Can these questions be used as icebreakers?

Yes. For groups that do not know each other, use the early-life and preference sections and skip the habit questions, which depend on people knowing each other well.

What are good prizes?

Small and cheap works best: a candy bar, choosing the next game, or skipping the dishes.