Ice breaker questions: 80 that don’t feel awkward

A good ice breaker question is easy to answer and easy to follow up. Here are 80 that work at parties, meetups, team events and first hangouts.

Easy ice breaker questions

1. What’s keeping you busy these days?

2. What was the best part of your week?

3. How do you usually spend your Sundays?

4. What’s the last thing you watched that you’d recommend?

5. What are you looking forward to this month?

6. What’s your go-to order at a café?

7. Are you a morning person or a night person?

8. What’s a place in your city you love?

9. How do you know the host?

10. What’s something small that made you happy recently?

11. What do you do when you want to switch off?

12. What’s the last trip you took?

13. What’s your comfort food?

14. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

15. What’s a skill you picked up recently?

Fun ice breaker questions

1. If you could only eat one cuisine forever, which one?

2. What’s your most useless talent?

3. Which film would you happily watch ten more times?

4. What’s the best concert or gig you’ve been to?

5. If you could live in any city for a year, where?

6. What’s your karaoke song?

7. What’s the weirdest job you’ve had or heard of?

8. What would your autobiography be called?

9. Which fictional character would you be friends with?

10. What’s an app you couldn’t live without?

11. If you won a lottery tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d buy?

12. What’s your hottest food take?

13. Which decade’s music do you like most?

14. What’s the best gift you’ve ever given?

15. If your pet could talk, what would it complain about?

16. What’s a trend you never understood?

17. What’s the most random thing on your bucket list?

18. Tea or coffee, and how do you take it?

19. What’s your favourite way to spend a rainy day?

20. Mountains or beaches?

Deeper ice breaker questions

1. What’s something you changed your mind about recently?

2. What are you most proud of this year?

3. Who has influenced you the most?

4. What’s a lesson you learnt the hard way?

5. What does a perfect day look like for you?

6. What’s something you want to get better at?

7. What’s a book or talk that changed how you think?

8. What’s one thing people often get wrong about you?

9. What makes a friendship last?

10. What’s the best decision you’ve made?

11. What would you do if you had a free month?

12. What’s something you’re curious about right now?

13. Where do you feel most like yourself?

14. What’s a goal you’re working towards?

15. What’s a small thing that makes a big difference in your day?

Questions for a group of strangers

1. Let’s go round: name, and one thing you did this week that you enjoyed.

2. What brought you here tonight?

3. What’s one place in the city everyone here should try?

4. What’s something you’re hoping to do more of next year?

5. What’s a hobby you’d try if someone came with you?

6. What’s the best event you’ve been to recently?

7. What’s one thing you’d recommend to everyone here?

8. What’s a question you wish people asked you more?

9. What’s the most interesting thing you learnt this month?

10. What’s your favourite way to meet new people?

Questions for work and team events

1. What’s your favourite part of your job?

2. What did you do before this role?

3. What’s a tool or trick that saves you time?

4. What’s the best team you’ve worked in, and why?

5. What’s something you do outside work that people here might not know?

6. What’s the best advice you got early in your career?

7. If you could swap jobs with anyone here for a day, who?

8. What’s one thing you’d like to learn from this team?

9. What’s your favourite way to celebrate a win?

10. What’s a work habit you’re proud of?

11. Where do you do your best thinking?

12. What’s the most useful meeting you’ve ever had?

13. What’s a skill you’d teach the team?

14. What’s your favourite lunch spot near the office?

15. What’s something that made you laugh at work recently?

16. How do you like to get feedback?

17. What’s a project you’re proud of?

18. What’s one thing you’d change about how we work?

19. What would you do with a free afternoon at work?

20. What’s a podcast or newsletter you’d recommend?

How to use them well

• Ask, then follow up. “Why?” and “What happened next?” turn a question into a conversation.

• Answer first sometimes. It shows how open you want people to be.

• Pick three, not twenty. The goal is to get people talking, then step back.

Find your plan on 8club

• Find something to do. Search Hotspots happening near you this week.

• Check the guest list. Every Hotspot shows who’s going, and people you know show up first, so you can see if your friends are in before you join.

• Follow hosts you like. You’ll hear the moment their next Hotspot goes live.

• Build your Circle. When you and a friend follow each other, you’re in each other’s Circle.

Quick answers

What is a good ice breaker question?

One that’s easy to answer, has no wrong answer and invites a follow-up, like “What’s the best part of your week?”

What are good ice breakers for a group of strangers?

A quick round of name plus one thing you enjoyed this week, then a fun question like “What’s your karaoke song?”