120 icebreaker questions for work and groups

An icebreaker question has one job: get a quiet room talking in under a minute. The best ones have no wrong answer, take five seconds to answer and still tell you something about the person. "What did you have for breakfast?" fails the last test. "What is the best breakfast you have ever had?" passes all three.

Here are 120 icebreaker questions we wrote ourselves, in six sets: quick ones for meetings, fun ones for adults, a set for a new team or someone's first day, one for online calls, one for students and a set of two-choice questions. All of them are safe for work and fine for a classroom.

• For meetings
• Fun for adults
• New team
• Online calls
• For students
• Two-choice

How to run an icebreaker

• One question, everyone answers. Go round the room or the call in order, so nobody has to jump in.
• Time-box it. Thirty seconds each. With fifteen people that is still under ten minutes.
• The host goes first. A short, slightly silly answer from the person running the meeting gives everyone else permission.
• Passing is fine. Say so before you start. A forced answer kills the mood faster than a skipped one.

Icebreaker questions for work meetings

1. What is the best thing you ate this week?
2. What is one thing on your desk right now, and why is it there?
3. What was the highlight of your weekend, in five words?
4. What is a small thing that went right this week?
5. What are you looking forward to this month?
6. What is the last thing you learned that surprised you?
7. What is your go-to snack for a long afternoon?
8. If today were a weather report, what would it be?
9. What is a podcast, show or book you would recommend right now?
10. What is the best tip you have for a busy week?
11. What did you do on your last day off?
12. What is a work habit you picked up from someone in this room?
13. What is your favourite way to take a break?
14. What is a tiny thing you would improve about this office?
15. Which colleague, past or present, taught you the most?
16. What are you having for dinner tonight, if you know?
17. What is one word for how this week is going?
18. What is the most useful thing you have bought for under twenty dollars?
19. Which day of the week is secretly the best?
20. What is one thing you would like to finish by Friday?

Fun icebreaker questions for adults

1. What is the most useless fact you know by heart?
2. What would your entrance music be?
3. What is the strangest thing you have ever won?
4. Which everyday chore would you turn into an Olympic sport?
5. What is a food opinion you will defend forever?
6. If you had to eat one cuisine for a year, which would it be?
7. What is your most controversial snack opinion?
8. What is the worst fashion choice you have made on purpose?
9. Which animal do you think would be the best at office work?
10. What would be the title of your autobiography?
11. What is the best wrong answer you have ever given in a quiz?
12. What is a talent you have that would be no help in an emergency?
13. Which made-up holiday should be real?
14. What is the oldest thing in your fridge right now?
15. What would you name a band if you started one tomorrow?
16. Which smell instantly makes you hungry?
17. What is the most adventurous thing you have done on a holiday?
18. What job would you be terrible at?
19. Which song would you put on to get a party started?
20. What is the best thing you have ever found on the side of the road?

Icebreaker questions for a new team

For someone's first day, a new project or a team that has just been put together. These help people learn how each other likes to work.

1. What is your name, and is there a story behind it?
2. What did you do before this job?
3. What is something you are known for at work?
4. Do you like a quick chat or a written message?
5. What time of day do you do your best work?
6. What is one thing that makes a team great to work in?
7. What is a skill you can teach the rest of us?
8. What is something you would like to get better at here?
9. What is the best project you have ever worked on?
10. How do you like to celebrate a win?
11. What is something people are often surprised to learn about you?
12. What is your favourite place for lunch around here, or anywhere?
13. What is one thing that annoys you in a meeting?
14. What is your favourite way to learn something new?
15. Where would you go if you could work from anywhere for a month?
16. What was your favourite thing about your last team?
17. What is a book or video that changed how you work?
18. What is one question you would ask everyone here?
19. Are you a list maker, and if so, paper or app?
20. What would make your first month here a great one?

Icebreaker questions for online meetings

1. What is the view from where you are sitting right now?
2. Show us one thing within arm's reach.
3. What is in your mug or glass?
4. What is the best thing about working from home, and the worst?
5. Who else is in your house right now, people or pets?
6. What time is it where you are, and what should you be doing instead?
7. What would you name your home office?
8. What is the last photo you took?
9. What did you have for lunch, honestly?
10. What is your favourite background noise to work to?
11. Which thing in your room has the best story?
12. What is your setup: desk, kitchen table or couch?
13. What is one tip for staying focused at home?
14. What is the weather doing where you are?
15. Hold up the nearest book. Why do you own it?
16. What is the strangest thing that has happened on one of your video calls?
17. What is your go-to stretch or break between calls?
18. If you could teleport to one place for lunch, where would it be?
19. Which emoji sums up your week?
20. What is a small thing that makes working online better for you?

Icebreaker questions for students

1. What is one thing you did over the holidays?
2. What is your favourite subject, and why?
3. What is the best book you have read this year?
4. If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?
5. What is your favourite food for lunch?
6. What is something you are really good at?
7. Which place in the world would you most like to visit?
8. If you could have one superpower for a day, what would it be?
9. What is your favourite game to play with friends?
10. What is one thing you want to learn this year?
11. What is the best thing about where you live?
12. What would you do on a perfect weekend?
13. Which season do you like most?
14. What is something that makes you laugh?
15. What job would you like to try one day?
16. If you could invent a new holiday, what would it celebrate?
17. What is your favourite thing to make or build?
18. What is a sport or activity you would like to try?
19. Which character from a book would you like to meet?
20. What is one word that describes you?

Two-choice icebreakers

Some teams call these would you rather icebreakers. Everyone picks a side at once, by pointing, standing on one side of the room or typing 1 or 2 in the chat. Then ask a few people why.

1. Work from a beach or work from a mountain cabin?
2. Four-day week or a nine-day fortnight with a long weekend every time?
3. A desk by the window or a desk by the coffee machine?
4. Always five minutes early or always one minute late?
5. Read every email or never read an email again?
6. Live without music or live without podcasts?
7. A personal chef or a personal driver?
8. Be able to speak every language or play every instrument?
9. Unlimited holidays or unlimited snacks?
10. Meetings standing up or meetings walking around the block?
11. Give a talk to a thousand people or sing to ten?
12. Time travel to the past or to the future?
13. Know the answer to every quiz question or win every game of cards?
14. Never get stuck in traffic or never wait in a queue?
15. Have a pet that talks or a pet that can do your chores?
16. Always know the time without a clock or always know the way without a map?
17. Breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?
18. A huge garden or a huge kitchen?
19. Be the funniest person in the room or the smartest?
20. Skip winter every year or skip summer every year?

From icebreakers to team games

Icebreakers warm a room up. A short game makes it a team. Every Keyhole game runs in the browser: put the host screen on the meeting room TV, everyone joins on their own phone, and you are playing in about a minute.

Launch Party: every game is free to host until 30 November 2026, Party Pack 01 and Deck the Desks included. Sign in free to host. Guests never need an account.

More for work: question of the day ideas, trivia questions with answers, our Christmas icebreaker questions for work and the team name generator.

Updated 28 October 2026.