17 Questions To Ask Your Date That Aren’t About Hobbies or Jobs

Hands up if you’re over going on first dates?

If you’re living your best single life and on and off dating apps, meeting people out and about, or going to events like speed dating, chances are you’re getting pretty well-versed in the whole first date thing. And given so many dating apps now also use prompts to get people talking, and it can be easy to repeat the same convos over and over again.

With this in mind, we kinda need to get something off our chest…

First date questions really suck.

We’re sick of talking about hobbies! Who cares about our day at work! We’re all stuck in this capitalist nightmare! Yes, I eat pineapple on pizza! No, I don’t care if you don’t! No, I don’t want to play truth and dare!

If you’re over the repetitiveness and want to take your date from 0-100 (note, this may not always be a good thing), we’ve rounded up some conversation starters for you to trial out next time you’re trying to wine and dine someone.

Bookmark these and thank us (or get mad at us) later.

Here are some questions you can ask your date that aren’t about hobbies or jobs.

1. What is their favourite vegetable and why? Can they rank the top three? AND WHY?

Here’s the thing. 98% of people will say potato so if you really want to up the stakes, say they can’t pick potato. They’ll then say sweet potato, but whatever. This question is just good as a warmup to get everyone out of their rehearsed first date spiels and make them think of something different.

2. What podcasts do you listen to?

THIS is a way to weed out red flags. If they say Jordan Peterson, you know it’s time to abort mission! Sorry to project, but you know it’s true.

3. What’s your best friend like?

The way they talk about someone they love could be very telling or just really damn wholesome.

4. What’s your attachment style?

Everyone will say secure, and that will be a lie.

5. What do you want done with your body after you die?

It’s dark, sure, but it still beats ‘what are your hobbies?’

6. What concert do you always brag about going to?

Watching someone speak about something they’re passionate about is hot, even if you’re not into the same music.

7. Smooth or crunchy peanut butter?

You need to know now if they have a nut allergy before kissing them — this is a surefire way to find out.

8. What’s your zombie apocalypse plan?

Are they a planner, are they a do-er, or are they someone so chill that they don’t give a flying fuck – this question is one way to know what kind of person you’re dealing with.

9. How much are you willing to spend to save the life of our hypothetical future pet dog?

Well?????

10.What type of dog are we getting?

Important!

11. How many nuggets could you eat in one sitting?

Then ask them to prove it. Just kidding. Unless…

12. What is the largest animal you think you could take in a fight?

They could do a Harrison from Married at First Sight and refer to themselves as a lion, and that’s when you’d know to abort mission.

13. Which conspiracy theory do you believe in?

The answers here are endless: they could be fun, they could be wacky, they could be downright creepy depending on how passionate they are. They could say something really cooked and reveal themselves as a flat-earther so you’ll know it’s time to wrap things up soon, etc.

14. What has been your favourite holiday and why?

It’s never too early to figure out if you can travel compatibly.

15. If you had to give a Ted Talk on something what would it be?

This is a fun way of finding out what they’re passionate about without having to say the cringeworthy phrase “what are you passionate about?”

16. Do you like Elon Musk/Joe Rogen /Andrew Tate?

Self-explanatory.

17. What is the last lie you told?

We all tell little white lies. For example, someone asked me earlier how I am doing post-My Chemical Romance touring and I said “I’m fine!” when in fact I nearly started crying and have been questioning every day this week what my purpose in life is. But no one wants to hear that!

But if your date’s version of a little white lie is something like “The other day I hid my housemates keys and then pretended like I didn’t know where they were and watched her look for them before putting them back in their usual spot,” then you know they’re full-blown crazy.

And finally if all else fails:

In what city were you born? What is the name of your favourite pet? What is your mother’s maiden name? What high school did you attend? What was the name of your primary school? What was the make of your first car?

Who do you bank with?