Impromptu Speaking Practice Questions | SpeakCalmHQ

Use these prompts to boost your speaking skills. Practice alone at home or with others in a supportive setting. Begin by speaking for 30 seconds and gradually try talking for a full minute.

Super Easy | Easy | Medium | Mix: Easy-Difficult | Interview

Super Easy – good starter questions

Say as much or as little as you want. If you are new and have high anxiety in a practice group, start slow by saying one word and work up as you get more comfortable.

1. What is your favorite holiday?
2. What is your favorite season?
3. What’s your favorite food?
4. What is your favorite [xx]?
5. What do you like about where you live?
6. Where would you like to travel?

Easy

Once your anxiety reduces below a 4 with Super Easy questions, practice these.

1. Would you go ice fishing?
2. Which activities make you lose track of time?
3. If you had to teach something, what would you teach?
4. What makes you smile?
5. Where would you most like to go and why?
6. What do you imagine yourself doing ten years from now?
7. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?
8. What is your number one goal for the next six months?
9. What do you do over and over again that you hate doing?
10. What is your favorite fictional story (movie, story)
11. What things should always be free?
12. What do you love to do?
13. What is your favorite time of year?
14. What is your favorite place on earth?
15. Which one of your responsibilities do you wish you could get rid of?
16. What’s something you don’t like to do that you are still really good at?
17. What’s the closest you have ever come to fearing for your life?
18. What’s something you wish you had done earlier in your life?

Medium

Once your anxiety reduces below a 4 with Easy questions, practice these.

1. When was the last time you tried something new?
2. What gets you excited about life?
3. What do you wish you spent more time doing five years ago?
4. What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?
5. When you are 80-years-old, what will matter to you the most?
6. If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be?
7. If the average human lifespan was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
8. Would you rather have less work or more work you actually enjoy doing?
9. What is the most desirable trait another person can possess?
10. What are you most grateful for?
11. What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
12. If you had the chance to go back in time and change one thing would you do it?
13. If a doctor gave you five years to live, what would you try to accomplish?
14. What is your happiest childhood memory?  What makes it so special?
15. Would you rather lose all of your old memories or never be able to make new ones? 

Mix – Easy to Difficult

Difficult questions include controversial topics where you have to express an opinion in a group. They require you to collect your thoughts on challenging topics as you speak.

1. If you had to describe your anxiety right now as a weather pattern, what’s your forecast?
2. “If you could erase from your brain one piece of knowledge (memory, or fact/set of facts) what would it be?”
3. Tell a lie and a true thing about yourself. Let others guess which is which.
4. How did you get your name? Talk about your family or other context about your name.
5. What would you write on a gigantic billboard if you could?
6. Without using the title of your job, tell me what you do.
7. Imagine you could devote a year to researching someone’s biography. Who would your subject be?
8. What question do you wish people would ask you?
9. If you were a boat, what kind of boat would you be? And why?
10. What topic do you wish was a college major but isn’t?
11. What are you looking forward to right now?
12. What is a boring fact about yourself?
13. Which book did you read in college or high school that was actually interesting enough that you still think or talk about it
14. What’s something new you’ve learned about yourself in the last three months?
15. How would you describe yourself as a teenager?
16. If you had a personal chef coming over to make you dinner (and money is not an issue) what would you ask them to prepare for you?
17. What can you speak about, with no advance preparation, for 30 minutes?
18. How did you spend time regrettably last week, and if you could retroactively get that time back, how would you spend it?
19. “Build” your dream strip mall, with five chain establishments — the strip mall of your heart.
20. If you were able to chat with an animal for 5 minutes: which one would it be, and what would you tell or ask?
21. You’re the organizer of a music festival; pick any two music headliners, living or dead.
22. What’s something you believe in but can’t prove?
23. What animal would you ride into battle?
24. What is a smell that brings back a very strong memory for you?
25. If the story of your life is 300 pages long — what’s on page 283?
26. Describe your first car, and what it meant for you.
27. Using only food: Where did you grow up?
28. If you were a vending machine, what would you dispense?
29. If you could rule for a day, what would your first decree be?
30. “Please tell me about a career milestone you achieved. Just a marker of success, however you define it.”
31. What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
32. What dream have you never forgotten
33. “What olympic event would you do, if you could do any, no previous experience or talent required?”
34. “What is your most memorable experience involving an animal?”
35. “When were you sure a bad outcome would be your ruin, but in fact it turned out to your benefit?
36. If you could be part of any world record, what would it be?
37. If you were alive in [time period X], what do you think your line of work would have been or how would you have earned a living?
38. Do you believe in destiny, or in the power of free will?
39. What’s your favorite-ever celebrity sighting? If you haven’t seen a celebrity, which famous person would you like to meet?
40. What major historical event occurred during your lifetime?
41. What was your favorite activity as a 10-year-old?
42. What is the dumbest thing you made your parents buy for you as a kid?
43. What’s a habit you’ve started as an adult that you now wish you could break?
44. What was your first concert?
45. What is your favorite body of water?
46. What’s the worst prediction you ever made?
47. What would you do if I gave you a billion dollars?
48. Have you ever quit doing something that you used to really like doing? Do you regret it? Or are you happy you quit?
49. Of the places you have lived or spent significant time, which one had the most pleasing view out the front door/main window/etc for you and why?
50. Tell me about a time when you changed your mind.
51. What is your earliest memory?
52. Tell me something about yourself that I could never tell from looking at you.
53. If you could say one sentence to your pet and know they would understand it, what would you say?
54. Tell me about something you love doing that you’re terrible at. And tell me about something you really do not like doing that you’re great at.
55. Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world fluently, or be able to play every musical instrument
56. What are you into now that you never thought you would be into? And conversely, What’s something you used to be into that you’re not anymore?
57. What is a supposedly fun thing that you did — that you’ll never do again?
58. What is something you didn’t like but you are glad happened?When did you last step outside your comfort zone?
59. Who do you find yourself comparing yourself to?
60. What’s the smartest advice you’ve ever heard?
61. What gives you energy and excitement in life?
62. Which lesson did you have to learn the hard way?
63. What do you wish you had spent more time doing five years ago?
64. Do you ask enough questions or accept what you know without digging deeper?
65. Who do you care about and what do you do to show it?
66. What’s an opinion you have that many people disagree with?
67. What is something you can do now that you couldn’t do a year ago?
68. Is crying a weakness or a strength?
69. What would you try if you knew nobody would criticize you?
70. Do you take time to appreciate what you have?
71. How is living different from just going through the motions?
72. If you’re not acting now, when will you?
73. Have you done anything recently that stands out?
74. What brings you joy today?
75. Can silence be a way of lying?
76. If someone spoke to you the way you speak to yourself, would you want that person as a friend?
77. What activities make you forget about time?
78. If you had to teach something, what would you choose?
79. What would you regret never trying, being, or having?
80. Is there something you’re holding onto that you should let go?
81. What will matter most to you at age 80?
82. When is it time to stop weighing options and just do what feels right?
83. If you didn’t know your age, how old would you feel?
84. Would you risk breaking the law to save someone you love?
85. What brings a smile to your face?
86. Will you talk more or accomplish more by the end of your life?
87. If you could share one message with a large audience, what would it be?
88. If people only lived to 40, how would you live differently?
89. Besides genetics, what makes us all human?
90. Which book should every high school student read?
91. Would you prefer a lighter workload or a job you truly enjoy, even if it means working more?
92. What beliefs would you go to war for?
93. Which is worse: failing or never taking the risk?
94. When did you last notice the sound of your breathing?
95. What’s something you do differently from most people?
96. How do you define the American Dream?
97. Would you rather be a stressed-out genius or a happy simple person?
98. What advice would you plant in a newborn’s mind?
99. What trait do you value most in others?
100. What are you most thankful for right now?
101. Is stealing to feed a starving child wrong?
102. What do you want more than anything right now?
103. Are you more focused on doing things right or doing the right things?
104. What has life taught you lately?
105. What change would you like to see in the world?
106. Where do you look for inspiration?
107. Can you sum up your life in six words?
108. If learning from mistakes helps us grow, why are we afraid to make them?
109. How do you want to affect the world around you?
110. What event has shaped who you are the most?
111. In your daily routine, what do you often overlook?
112. Why do people spend so much time on things they dislike and skip things they enjoy?
113. What helps lift your mood when things get tough?
114. Have you ever regretted not speaking or taking action?
115. Has your worst fear ever come true?
116. Why do we often think more about people after they’re gone?
117. What is your favorite childhood memory?
118. Is loving others more important than being loved?
119. If everything you’ve done came back to you, would it help or hurt?
120. If you could go back and change one thing in your past, would you?
121. If a doctor told you you had five years left, what would you try to achieve?
122. How do you see the difference between falling in love and truly loving someone?
123. What obstacles stand between you and being happy?
124. What’s the difference between innocence and ignorance?
125. What is the simplest truth you know?
126. What gives your life meaning?
127. Can there be happiness without sadness? Can there be pleasure without pain? Peace without conflict?
128. How do you want to be remembered at the end of your life?
129. Is perfection possible?
130. How much control have you really had over your life’s direction?
131. What does it mean to be human to you?
132. If you could see your enemy’s heart, what might you find that is different from your own?
133. What do you appreciate most about yourself?
134. Where would you most like to travel and why?
135. Is it better to do work you love or to learn to love what you’re doing?
136. What do you picture yourself doing in ten years?
137. What simple kindness has someone shown you that still stays with you?
138. What is your happiest memory from childhood? Why does it stand out?
139. Do you control your possessions or do your belongings control you?
140. Would you rather lose all your memories or no longer be able to make new ones?
141. How do you deal with powerful people who want to see you fail?
142. What can’t you live without?
143. What do you see when you close your eyes?
144. What keeps you going each day?
145. What five values are most important to you?
146. Why is it sometimes necessary to let someone go even when you love them?
147. Do you ever celebrate when things go well?
148. What fears have shaped restrictions in your life?
149. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t?
150. Why are you the person you are?
151. If you still haven’t reached your goal, what’s stopping you?
152. What three words sum up your last three months?
153. Is it ever okay to do something wrong?
154. How do you define freedom?
155. What’s the most important thing you can do for yourself right now?
156. If you could ask anyone, living or dead, just one question, who would it be and what would you ask?
157. If your happiness was measured like money, what job or activity would make you rich?
158. What is your main goal for the next six months?
159. Would you give up your life to save someone else?
160. Are you satisfied with who you are?
161. What does peace mean to you?
162. Name three moral rules you will never break.
163. What does it mean to let someone love you fully?
164. Who or what comes to mind when you think of love?
165. If your life was a book, what would you call it and how would the story end?
166. What wouldn’t you trade for a million dollars?
167. When do you feel most like yourself?
168. When you help others, do you ever wonder what you’ll get back?
169. What challenge feels the biggest to you right now?
170. How do you know when to keep holding on or let go?
171. What is your definition of success?
172. If you could know exactly when you’ll die, would you want to know?
173. If I granted a wish, what would you ask for?
174. What have you read online lately that inspired or motivated you?
175. Why do some religions that preach unity end up dividing people?
176. If you could relive one day, which would you pick?
177. What can’t money buy?
178. If you died tomorrow, how would people remember you?
179. Beyond your labels and titles, who are you?
180. If you could restart a single day, what would you do differently?
181. Can anyone know the truth without first questioning it?
182. What single word describes your last month?
183. What usually brings out a smile in people?
184. What do you owe to yourself?
185. What would your ‘priceless’ commercial look like?
186. When did you prove to yourself that what seemed impossible could be done?
187. What makes you important?
188. In what ways have you changed in the past five years?
189. What are you most certain about in your life?
190. What do you think of first when you hear the word ‘home’?
191. Where’s the line between settling for something and accepting it?
192. How many of your friends would you trust with your life?
193. How would you describe heaven?
194. What do you value most that you own?
195. How would you describe yourself in just one sentence?
196. What gets between you and your happiness?
197. What makes someone truly beautiful?
198. Is there ever a good reason to give up?
199. What makes you proud?
200. How do you get the courage to do what you know is right?
201. Where do you feel at peace?
202. When did you work hard and love every minute of it?
203. How much shorter would your life have to be before you’d change how you live now?
204. Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved?
205. If a mistake you made cost someone their life, what would you do?
206. Who do you trust, and why?
207. If you could keep just what fits in a backpack, what would you choose?
208. When do you think silence speaks the most?
209. How do you usually spend your free time?
210. Who comes to mind when you think of success?
211. What did you dream of becoming as a child?
212. How will today affect your life in five years?
213. How have you helped someone recently?
214. What skill are you best at?
215. Do you believe what you see, or see what you believe?
216. How are you following your dreams at the moment?
217. What big step should you take next for your growth?
218. If today was your last, would you spend it doing what you have planned?
219. If today was your last, who would you call and what would you say?
220. Who appears in your dreams most often?
221. What do you struggle to picture clearly in your head?
222. What are you excited about right now?
223. What is the one thing you must accomplish before you die?
224. When does love become a weakness?
225. What was the scariest moment of your life?
226. Who is the toughest person you know?
227. If you could snap one photo that reflects your life, what would it look like?
228. Does the benefit ever truly outweigh the risk?
229. What makes today worth showing up for?
230. What did you do last year that you’re proud of?
231. What did you learn lately that influenced how you live?
232. What’s your favorite memory from the past three years?
233. What are the core ingredients for a happy life?
234. How would the world be different if you were never born?
235. What song means the most to you, and why?
236. Using what you have, what can you do now to move closer to your dream?
237. What are your top three priorities in life?
238. Why do we look up to athletes?
239. What’s the kindest thing someone has done for you?
240. When you picture your future, what do you see?
241. What makes you angry?
242. What important life lesson did you learn from your parents?
243. How does love feel to you?
244. What are your favorite little pleasures?
245. If you could visit your younger self, what advice would you give?
246. What things do you do just to impress other people?
247. What will you never agree to do?
248. Besides romance, who do you truly care for?
249. What is a memory from your early childhood?
250. What book shaped you the most?
251. What three big questions do you wish you had answers to?
252. When did you feel the strongest peer pressure?
253. What’s the biggest lie you once believed?
254. When did something you do hurt someone else?
255. What do you enjoy most about getting older?
256. What’s been on your mind lately?
257. What do you think is worth waiting for?
258. What risks do you wish you had taken?
259. Where else would you love to live?
260. What drives you to get up for work every day?
261. If you could go back, what would you change about your choices?
262. What’s your biggest strength, and what’s your greatest weakness?
263. When did you last lie, and why?
264. What made you smile this week?
265. Where does most of your money go?
266. What makes you want to do your best?
267. When did you last lash out in anger, and why?
268. What is something you’ll never give up on?
269. When you think about your past, what do you miss most?
270. How would you sum up this past year in one sentence?
271. What’s the most impulsive thing you’ve ever done?
272. What makes you feel uneasy?
273. If you had to move 3,000 miles away, what would you miss most?
274. What concerns you about the future?
275. What’s one need and one want you aim to meet this year?
276. What important lessons did you have to learn for yourself?
277. Do you like where you live? Why or why not?
278. What’s the best thing about being you?
279. When you look back at the past month, what stands out?
280. How do you handle stress?
281. What’s your happiest memory?
282. What’s your saddest memory?
283. What do you most want to change?
284. How many people do you love?
285. What’s the best choice you’ve ever made?
286. What’s your favorite true story to tell?
287. Right now, what do you want most?
288. What are you waiting for?
289. What helps love last?
290. What good can come out of suffering?
291. What did you learn in the last year that stuck with you?
292. If your days and habits stay the same, where will you be in five years?
293. What big thing did you accomplish most recently?
294. Through challenges, who has stood by your side?
295. Who or what distracts you the most?
296. What are you looking forward to next week?
297. Who is your mentor, and what have they taught you?
298. What are you unsure about right now?
299. What do you usually think about before falling asleep?
300. What’s something about you that surprises people?
301. When you have a free hour, how do you usually spend it?
302. What makes you unique?
303. If you could redo yesterday, what would you change?
304. What’s a habit you dislike but keep repeating?
305. Would you rather your child be very smart and plain looking or very attractive but not as bright?
306. What are the small lies you often tell?
307. What is the biggest change you’ve made in your life this year?
308. What do you understand now that you didn’t a year ago?
309. Whose life have you influenced the most?
310. What lesson did yesterday teach you?
311. Who do you admire?
312. What have you done that you wish you hadn’t?
313. When should you break a promise of secrecy?
314. How would you spend your perfect day?
315. What key trait do you look for in a partner?
316. What do you respect most about your parents?
317. What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
318. If eternal life were possible, would you want it? Why or why not?
319. If you could switch lives with anyone for a day, who would you choose and why?
320. What positive changes have you made recently?
321. Who boosts your confidence?
322. What’s your biggest regret so far?
323. Which responsibility would you drop if you could?
324. What’s something you dislike doing, but do well?
325. What sort of people upset you the most?
326. What do you feel is missing in your life?
327. What’s your most noticeable physical feature?
328. How has fear of failure held you back?
329. Who do you most hope to please?
330. If you could rewind the past week, what would you change?
331. When meeting someone new, what impression do you want to make?
332. Who would you choose to forgive?
333. When in the last five years did you feel alone?
334. What chance did you pass up as a child?
335. What would you like to see more of in your life?
336. What would you like to see less of?
337. Who counts on you?
338. Who has influenced you the most?
339. Are you happy with your life? Why or why not?
340. How might your life be different one year from now?
341. How have you sabotaged yourself in the past five years?
342. Besides money, what have you gained from your current job?
343. Who do you secretly envy, and why?
344. What do you want to remember about the next twenty years?
345. What has you most excited right now?
346. What experience from this year do you value the most?
347. What’s the most enjoyable thing your family has done together during the past three years?
348. How much TV do you watch each week?
349. What biggest hurdle stands in your way today?
350. What do you pretend to understand but don’t?
351. What do you like most and least about your work?
352. What recent discovery have you made about yourself?
353. How would you sum up your relationship with your mother in one sentence?
354. What event from this year shaped your life most?
355. What’s the biggest change you should make in the next twelve months?
356. What makes you feel safe and secure?
357. What sound do you love most?
358. What three qualities do you want in a friend?
359. What act of kindness made you believe there’s still good in people?
360. What is your favorite scent?
361. What recent memory brings you the most joy?
362. Choose one word to describe your childhood.
363. What famous people do you admire, and why?
364. What motivates you the most right now?
365. What music cheers you up when you’re feeling low?
366. If you had to spend $1,000 today, what would you buy?
367. What made you laugh out loud last?
368. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
369. Who was the last person you said “I love you” to?
370. What scares you the most?
371. What have people complimented you on lately?
372. How many friends do you keep in regular contact with offline?
373. How much money lets you live comfortably each month?
374. When were you completely wrong about someone at first?
375. How many hours do you spend online in a week?
376. What do you love doing most?
377. What character trait do you want others to remember you for?
378. Are you more like your mom or dad? In what ways?
379. What’s the top quality a good leader should have?
380. What bad habit do you most want to lose?
381. Where is your favorite place on earth?
382. What do you enjoy practicing?
383. What questions keep coming back to you?
384. What are you an expert at?
385. What difference would an extra $1,000 a month make in your life?
386. What do you think should always be free?
387. When is your favorite time of year?
388. What’s something you wished for as a child?
389. What’s the last dream you remember?
390. What leaves you feeling confused?
391. How do you sometimes get in your own way?
392. When did you avoid speaking up when you should have?
393. What’s your favorite quote?
394. What’s your favorite story, whether a book, movie, or fairy tale?
395. Where or whom do you go to for wise advice?
396. How do you express yourself artistically?
397. Who or what do you see as humanity’s greatest enemy?
398. What do you wish you’d done sooner?
399. When did you fear for your life?
400. How do you deal with feeling alone?
401. What do you know well enough to teach someone else?
402. What quick decision changed your life?
403. What have you lost interest in lately?
404. What makes life simpler?
405. When did you last have an intense argument? What was it about?
406. What is a job you could never do, no matter how much you would be paid?
407. What’s the best way to heal the world?
408. What could society manage without?
409. What causes you the most stress?
410. What did you do last week that still sticks with you?
411. Where do you spend most of your waking hours?
412. What qualities make someone a hero to you?
413. When were you a victim of a stereotype?
414. When did you last feel lucky?
415. When did you realize that life is short?
416. What action is the most insensitive?
417. What grabs your attention right away?
418. What do you think about while commuting home?
419. What’s one drawback of modern living?
420. What simple truth do you wish more people understood?
421. If you had another shot, would you do anything differently?
422. What three words describe your view of the future?
423. What story are you writing with your life right now?

Interview Questions

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Tell me about your work experience
3. Walk me through your resume
4. How did you hear about this position
5. Why do you want to work here
6. Why do you want this job
7. Why should we hire you
8. What value do you bring to the table that we won’t find in other candidates
9. What are your strengths
10. What are your weaknesses
11. What is your greatest professional achievement
12. Tell me about a challenge or conflict you’ve faced at work, and how you handled it