Rice Purity Test Questions Explained by Category

The Rice Purity Test asks 100 yes-or-no questions, and everyone who takes it notices the same thing: the list starts gentle and gets wilder as it goes. That shape is not an accident. Here is how the questions are grouped, what each part of the list is actually asking about, and why the order matters.

First, an honest note about categories. There is no official category list for this test. No publisher ever stamped sections onto it. The themes below are how players, guides, and hosts have always described the list, because the questions clearly fall into clusters — and because those clusters explain why your score lands where it does. Different versions of the test word things differently, and some swap a question or two, but the shape below holds for the classic 100-question version you can take here.

How the List Is Built

Every question works the same way. It describes one experience, and you tick it if it applies to you. Each tick costs exactly one point from a starting score of 100. Holding hands costs the same single point as the rarest item on the list. That flat scoring is part of the joke and part of the design: the number is a count, not a judgment, and no single question can sink it.

The questions are also ordered, roughly, from mild to heavy. Early questions describe things most people have done by their late teens. Late questions describe things most people never do. That ordering is why two people with the same score can still have very different stories — and why the score tends to fall as you get older and work further down the list.

The Six Themes of the 100 Questions

1. Dating and Romance

The opening stretch is the softest part of the test: holding hands, going on a date, being in a relationship, first kisses and early romantic milestones. Almost everyone ticks several of these, which is the point — the list warms you up before it asks anything harder. If you only tick items from this section, your score stays in the high 90s.

2. Physical Closeness

The second cluster moves from romance into physical intimacy, step by step. The questions stay short and plain — the list never explains itself, it just asks — and they climb gradually rather than jumping. This is the section where scores start to spread out, because people's experiences here vary the most.

3. Parties and Substances

Next come drinking, smoking, and party situations: drinking games, being drunk, smoking, and the social settings around them. These questions are also where age shows up most sharply. A college student's score usually drops here faster than anywhere else, which is one reason our average score by age page shows scores falling fastest during the college years.

4. Rules, School, and Trouble

This cluster covers the mischief end of life: cheating on a test, breaking school rules, run-ins with authority, pranks, and property dares. The items here are mostly about judgment calls and peer pressure rather than romance or substances, and they are the ones people argue about most in group chats — "does that even count?" is practically a tradition of its own.

5. Social Dares and Public Moments

Then come the public, performative items: dares, stunts, and things done in front of other people. These are the questions that make a room laugh when the test is taken together, because they are stories as much as experiences. Our terms explained guide decodes the old-fashioned wording some of these items still carry.

6. The Far End of the List

The final stretch holds the rarest and most serious items — the ones most people never tick, and the ones that do the most damage to a score when they do apply. Very few test-takers reach the bottom of the list with many ticks here, which is why scores below 30 are uncommon. The list ends here on purpose: the far end is what separates a "wild" score from an ordinary one.

Why Mild-to-Heavy Works So Well

The ordering does three jobs at once. First, it builds honesty: easy questions first mean you are already ticking before the harder ones arrive, so there is less temptation to stop. Second, it builds conversation: when friends take it together, the early questions get everyone talking, and the later ones get everyone laughing. Third, it makes the score readable at a glance. A score in the 90s means your ticks mostly came from the gentle end. A score in the 40s means your ticks reached much further down. That is also why our score meaning guide reads the number as a position on the list, not a verdict on the person.

Why Some Questions Sound Outdated

Because some of them are. The list was written by students decades ago, and its wording still carries that era with it — including abbreviations like MPS, short for "member of the preferred sex", a phrase nobody uses anymore. Modern versions sometimes reword these items, but the classic list keeps them, and part of the test's charm is that it reads like a document from another decade. If a question confuses you, that is normal: the test is self-reported, so an item you do not understand counts as a "no". Our history article traces how the list grew from a short 1924 survey into the 100 questions used today.

Do All Versions Ask the Same Questions?

Mostly, but not exactly. The classic 100-question version is the one people compare, and it is the version on our homepage. Themed spin-offs change the list to fit a topic — a game, a fandom, a school — and those are different tests wearing a similar format. If you take a themed version, enjoy it, but do not compare its score with a classic score. And if you want the full picture of what your number means, the FAQ page answers the scoring, privacy, and retake questions people ask most.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many questions are in the Rice Purity Test?

The classic version has exactly 100 yes-or-no questions. Shorter or themed versions exist, but their scores are not comparable with the classic 100-question score.

What categories do the Rice Purity Test questions fall into?

There is no official category list, but the questions cluster into themes: dating and romance, physical closeness, parties and substances, rules and trouble, social dares, and the rarer items at the far end of the list.

Why do the questions get harder as the list goes on?

The list is ordered roughly from mild to heavy on purpose. It builds honesty, keeps friends talking when they take it together, and makes the final score readable as a position on the list.

Do all questions count the same?

Yes. Every tick costs exactly one point, from holding hands to the rarest item on the list. The score is a count of ticks, not a weighted judgment.

What does MPS mean in the Rice Purity Test?

MPS stands for "member of the preferred sex", an old-fashioned phrase from the list's original wording. Our terms explained guide decodes it and the list's other dated wording in plain language.