20 Questions — rules, categories and how to play
20 Questions is a deduction game in which one player secretly thinks of a person, place or thing and everyone else has twenty yes-or-no questions to work out what it is.
- Players
- 2–20 players
- Length
- ~10 minutes
- Type
- Brain game
- Type
- Relaxed
Runs in your browser · no download · no account
The oldest guessing game in the world runs on one rule: you may ask anything, as long as the answer is yes or no. Twenty questions sounds generous until you have burned six of them establishing that it is, in fact, an object.
The maths is the fun part. Twenty perfect questions can separate a million things, because each one should halve what is left. Almost nobody asks perfect questions. People ask "is it a dog?" on question three, and then spend the rest of the round paying for it.
This version deals the secret item for you — 720 of them across animals, objects, food, places, people, concepts, vehicles and jobs — so the thinker never freezes up or picks something impossible out of spite. The phone shows the category to everyone, counts the questions, and scores the guesser on how many they had left over.
What you need
- One phone, passed to whoever is thinking
- 2 to 20 players — it works with two people in a car
- The discipline not to blurt out guesses on question two
- About 10 minutes
How to play 20 Questions
One player is the thinker. The phone is passed to them and they privately see a secret item — an animal, an object, a place, a job.
The category is shown to everyone. That is the only free information you get.
Everyone else asks questions that can be answered yes, no, or sort of. The thinker taps the answer, and the counter ticks down.
Guesses are free-form: shout the answer any time. A wrong shout costs nothing but the question you spent asking it.
Halfway through, the thinker can release a written hint. It helps, but it takes 2 points off whoever eventually guesses.
Guess it and you bank the questions you did not use, never less than 1 — the thinker banks a point too for a fair, guessable item.
Run out of questions and the item is revealed with nobody scoring. Then the phone moves on. Most points once everyone has been the thinker wins.
Scoring and winning
- Guess correctly and you bank the questions nobody used — 20 questions with 6 asked is worth 14 — and never less than 1.
- The thinker banks 1 point for a fair item that someone eventually got, so picking something unguessable earns nothing.
- The thinker can release a written hint from the halfway mark. It costs the guesser 2 points.
- If the questions run out, the item is revealed and nobody scores.
- Everything is editable in the recap: who guessed, how many questions it really took, whether the hint went out.
- Most points once everyone has been the thinker wins. A tie gets one extra round.
20 Questions strategy and tips
- Spend your first three questions on the shape of the thing, not the thing itself. Alive or not, bigger than a car, found indoors — each of those cuts the field roughly in half.
- Never guess a specific item before question eight unless you are genuinely confident. A guess is a question you spent on a single answer instead of half the remaining ones.
- Listen to "sort of". It is the most informative answer on the board — it usually means you are in the right neighbourhood with the wrong word.
- As the thinker, pick something a stranger would name in five seconds, not the most obscure thing you can think of. Unguessable items score you nothing.
- Track what has been ruled out loud, especially with a big group. Half of all wasted questions in this game are re-asks of something answered four questions ago.
- If you are on question fifteen with nothing, stop refining and start guessing broadly. Two wide guesses beat one perfect question you never get to use.
Variants and house rules
Animal, vegetable or mineral
The traditional opening: the thinker declares which of the three the item belongs to before any questions are asked. Set the category filter to animals, food and objects to play it properly.
Ten-question sprint
Drop the limit to 10. Points get scarce and vague questions become unaffordable, which makes it the best version for experienced groups.
One guesser at a time
Players take questions in strict rotation rather than shouting over each other. Slower, much fairer, and the right call for a group of six or more.
Hard mode
Set the difficulty to Hard and turn the hint off as a house rule. The concepts category under hard difficulty is genuinely punishing.
Team 20
Split into two teams and alternate thinkers. A team may confer for ten seconds before each question, and points go to the team rather than the individual.
20 Questions FAQ
What are the rules of 20 Questions?
One player thinks of something. Everyone else asks up to twenty questions that can be answered yes or no, and tries to name it. Guesses count as questions. If the twenty run out, the thinker wins the round.
Can you play 20 Questions with two people?
Yes — it is one of the few games that genuinely works at two. One thinks, one asks, and you swap each round. The app supports 2 to 20 players.
What is a good first question in 20 Questions?
"Is it alive?" or "Is it bigger than a microwave?" Anything that splits every possible answer into roughly two halves. Avoid opening with a specific guess.
Does a guess count as a question?
Yes. Shouting "is it a giraffe?" costs you the same as any other question, which is why guessing early is expensive.
What does "sort of" mean?
It is the escape hatch for questions that are not cleanly yes or no — "is it found in a kitchen?" for a bread knife you also take camping. It counts as a question and usually means you are close.
How does scoring work?
The guesser scores the questions left unused, so guessing on question five with a limit of twenty is worth 15. The thinker gets 1 point when their item is guessed. A released hint costs the guesser 2.