OPIc Questions in 2026: What You Actually Get Asked

Most people prepare for the OPIc by hunting down a list of real questions. It is the wrong search, and the test is designed so that it fails.

Your questions are generated from answers you give in the first few minutes of your own session. Nobody can hand you the list, because the list does not exist until you make it.

If you want to practise answering questions you cannot predict, SpeakShark is free with three AI conversation sessions a day and no card.

In this guide: where the questions come from · how many you get · the question types · why memorising backfires · who rates the answers · the survey decision · how to practise · the mistakes · how we researched this guide · FAQ

Key takeaways

OPIc questions are generated from your own Background Survey, so no two candidates get the same test.
The test takes 20 to 40 minutes and ACTFL publishes no fixed question count, because the prompts are drawn at random from a pool you created.
Every question is one of five moves in disguise: describe, compare, narrate, handle a complication, ask a question back.
Memorised answers are a documented risk. ACTFL warns rehearsed responses can leave you without a rating.
Asking questions back is a real scored function and the one candidates most often never practise.

Where your questions actually come from

The OPIc session runs in a fixed order, and the first two screens decide everything that follows.

The Background Survey asks about your occupation, your living situation, your leisure activities, your hobbies and interests, your sports and your holidays. You select what applies to you. The test then builds your questions around those selections.

The Self Assessment presents five descriptions of speaking ability. Per ACTFL's Familiarization Guide, your choice determines which of five test forms is generated, and each form has its own rating range. That sets the difficulty of what you are asked.

Combine the two and you get a set of questions that is specific to you. Somebody who selected office work and cycling gets a different test from somebody who selected student life and cooking. Both are valid, both are rated on the same scale, and neither could have been predicted from a list.

This is worth sitting with, because it changes what preparation means. You cannot prepare the answers. You can only prepare the ability to produce answers.

How many questions, and how long

ACTFL's Familiarization Guide states the test takes 20 to 40 minutes to complete. It does not state a question count, and the omission is not carelessness. The guide describes prompts being randomly selected from a pool your Background Survey answers create, so a fixed number would contradict how the test is built.

Two other figures do exist, and they disagree with each other. The Korean administrator publishes an official spec of 12 or 15 questions, varying with the Self Assessment step you choose, and that is where almost every count you see online originates. Peer reviewed research working from ACTFL data reports up to 17 tasks depending on the test form. So the honest answer is a range that moves with your form, not a single number.

The window itself needs a caveat, because the two ACTFL documents word it differently. The Familiarization Guide says the test takes 20 to 40 minutes to complete, while the ACE report describes a 20 to 40 minute recorded sample, which would make it speaking time rather than seat time. We cannot reconcile those from the sources, so budget the longer reading. In Korea the administrator publishes a separate figure again, because orientation counts inside the booked slot there.

Three mechanics matter more than the numbers:

Assume you hear each question once. You will read everywhere that the test gives you one replay per question. We could not find that rule in any ACTFL document, and the guide's only mention of reviewing something twice refers to the instructions and the sample question before the test starts. Ask your administrator, and prepare for a single listen.
There is no pause. Once the session is running, it runs.
You cannot go back. A weak answer stays weak. Move on rather than carrying it into the next question, which is where a single stumble usually turns into three.

The question types that cover everything

You cannot know your questions. You can know their shapes, and there are not many.

Move	What the question is really asking	What raters are watching
Describe	Tell me about a familiar person, place, routine or object	Detail, organisation, whether you can sustain speech alone
Compare	How has this changed, or how do these two differ	Whether you can hold two ideas at once and structure a contrast
Narrate	Tell me about a time something happened	Past tense control, sequencing, whether the story arrives somewhere
Handle a complication	Something has gone wrong, deal with it	The Intermediate High and above skill: unexpected situations
Ask a question back	Find out what you need to know	A distinct function, and the one least practised

Every OPIc question is one of those five wearing a topic from your Background Survey. Prepare the five and the topic stops mattering, which is exactly the position the test is trying to put you in.

The fourth and fifth are where grades are decided. Research on Korean OPIc candidates found that asking questions ranks among the weakest functions at Intermediate Low and among the strongest at Intermediate Mid, which makes it one of the clearest markers of movement between bands. And the official Intermediate High descriptor is built around handling unfamiliar and unexpected complex situations, so complications are not a bonus round, they are the band definition. Our guide to what OPIc IH takes goes into that in detail.

Why memorising answers backfires

This is not a style preference. It is documented in the test's own materials.

ACTFL defines the construct the OPIc measures as the ability to use language in situations the speaker has not rehearsed or encountered previously. Unrehearsed is not a side condition of the test, it is what the test is for.

The Examinee Handbook goes further and warns that raters are experienced in identifying rehearsed responses, and that using them may result in no rating being issued.

Read that consequence carefully. Not a lower grade. No rating. You would sit the test, wait for the result, and receive nothing, then face the minimum 25 day gap set by Article 5(2) of the test administration rules before you could try again.

There is a quieter failure mode too, and it is more common than the dramatic one. A memorised answer is rigid. When the follow up goes somewhere your script did not cover, you have nothing, and the collapse is usually more visible than if you had simply spoken plainly from the start. Fluency built on recall breaks the moment the conversation moves.

Who actually rates your answers

A fair question follows from all of that. If a computer picks the questions and an avatar delivers them, who is deciding whether your answer was any good?

A certified human being. ACTFL's Familiarization Guide says the recordings of your responses are made available through a secure internet site to ACTFL certified OPIc raters, and the ACE report describes that rater listening to the whole sample holistically before matching it to the Proficiency Guidelines descriptors. On an Official or Certified OPIc a second certified rater rates the sample blind, and a third arbitrates if the two disagree.

This matters for how you prepare, because a human listener is why rehearsed answers get detected and why no transcript based tool can reproduce the judgement. Who grades the OPIc, and whether AI can prepare you covers the full rating chain, what ACTFL has and has not automated, and how to tell whether an AI tool's predicted grade means anything.

The Background Survey is a strategy decision

Since your questions are generated from your survey answers, the survey is the one place where you have direct influence over what you will be asked.

The temptation is to pick topics that sound impressive. Resist it. Pick topics you can talk about without preparing, because the point is to be asked about things where you already have material.

Two practical notes. Answer honestly, since the test may probe a topic from several angles and thin ground shows quickly under follow up. And favour topics that support all five moves: something you can describe, compare across time, tell a story about, and imagine going wrong. A topic that only supports description leaves you stranded when the complication arrives.

The Self Assessment screen sitting next to it deserves the same care, because it sets the ceiling on your possible grade. We cover it in which OPIc self assessment level to pick, and the grade it feeds into in OPIc IM2 and who requires it.

How to practise without a question list

Drill the five moves, not five topics. Take any subject and run all five: describe it, compare it to how it was, tell a story about it, handle something going wrong, ask a question about it.
Practise the single listen. Have your partner ask something once, then answer without asking for it again. Getting comfortable acting on one hearing is worth more in the room than another rehearsed paragraph, and it costs you nothing if a replay does turn out to be available.
Practise question forms out loud. Most candidates have never said an English question under time pressure. Role play scenarios put you in situations where you have to.
Speak into silence. The OPIc has no interviewer nodding along. Practising English speaking alone covers how to build tolerance for that.
Fix clarity before range. Being understood outranks sounding native. Six pronunciation fixes in fourteen days targets the sounds that block comprehension.
Make it daily. Free methods to raise fluency and building confidence in English cover the habit, and SpeakShark's free tier gives you a partner whose next question you genuinely cannot predict.

The mistakes that cost a band

Answering in one sentence. The question is an invitation, not a form field. Add the reason, the contrast or the example without being asked.
Reciting. Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the most common preparation strategy and the most directly penalised.
Freezing on an unfamiliar word. Say it another way and keep moving. Working around a gap is a rated skill; stopping is not.
Letting one bad answer spread. You cannot go back, so do not spend the next question thinking about the last one.
Choosing survey topics to impress. They generate your questions. Choose ground you can stand on.
Preparing for the wrong test entirely. If your employer accepts an alternative, check before you spend weeks here. OPIc vs TOEIC Speaking and the TOEIC Speaking test guide cover the other route, and if your process is a recorded video interview, see HireVue interview questions and English job interview role plays instead.

Not sure where you are starting from? Test your English speaking level free first, so the practice is aimed at a real gap. To see the questions delivered rather than described, the official demo is free, and what a practice test can honestly reproduce explains why no question list can stand in for it. The full grade scale covers what your answers are being matched against.

How we researched this guide

The Background Survey prompt pool mechanic, the Self Assessment, the five form structure and the construct definition come from ACTFL's OPIc Familiarization Guide, read from the PDF directly rather than quoted from secondary sources. The rehearsed response warning comes from the ACTFL OPIc Examinee Handbook. The retake gap comes from Article 5(2) of the official OPIc Korea test administration rules. The 12 or 15 figure is published by the Korean administrator, and the higher task count comes from published applied linguistics work on OPIc performance, as does the research on question asking.

Two things in this guide are corrections to what we published earlier, and both are worth stating plainly. We previously wrote that the test allows one replay per question. Neither ACTFL document contains any replay or repeat rule, so we have withdrawn that and now advise preparing for a single listen. We also previously wrote that the 20 to 40 minutes covers the whole session including the surveys. That was our inference rather than anything either document states, and since the ACE report describes a recorded sample of that length while the Familiarization Guide says the test takes that long to complete, we now give both readings instead of choosing one.

We have deliberately not reproduced test questions. Question content is the property of the exam body and lists circulating online are both unreliable and, given how the survey generates your set, not applicable to your session anyway. What we have described are the categories the questions fall into, which is public information and the only part that transfers.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and it is our pick for OPIc preparation precisely because it cannot give you a question list. You talk, the AI answers, and the next thing it says depends on what you just said. That is the same unrehearsed condition ACTFL says the test measures, which no set of memorised answers can rehearse you for. You get feedback on pronunciation, grammar and fluency while the conversation is still running.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a full session.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider and we are not affiliated with ACTFL, Language Testing International, ETS or any exam board. For test format, rules, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

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Sources

ACTFL OPIc Familiarization Guide: question count, session length, Background Survey, Self Assessment, the five forms, construct definition
ACTFL OPIc Examinee Handbook: rehearsed response warning and the no rating consequence
OPIc Korea, test administration rules: Article 5(2) minimum retake gap
OPIc Korea, about the test: grade bands and official descriptors

FAQ

How many questions are on the OPIc?

ACTFL does not publish a fixed number, and this is deliberate rather than an oversight. The Familiarization Guide says prompts are randomly selected from a pool your own survey answers create, so the count varies with the form generated for you. Two other figures do exist: the Korean administrator publishes 12 or 15 depending on your Self Assessment step, and peer reviewed research reports up to 17 tasks. Treat the count as a range, not a rule.

Are OPIc questions the same for everyone?

No, and this is the single most misunderstood thing about the test. Your questions are generated from the topics you select in the Background Survey, combined with the form your Self Assessment triggers. Two candidates sitting at the same time can receive entirely different sets. That is why lists of real questions circulating online are unreliable as a study plan.

Can I memorise OPIc answers?

You can, and it works against you. ACTFL's Examinee Handbook warns that raters are experienced at identifying rehearsed responses and that using them may leave you without a rating at all. The construct ACTFL states the test measures is the ability to use language in situations you have not rehearsed or encountered previously, so memorised material is the opposite of what is being scored.

What is the role play question on the OPIc?

A prompt that puts you in a situation and asks you to act inside it rather than describe it, typically involving asking for information or dealing with a complication. It matters more than its share of the test suggests, because asking questions is a distinct function raters look for, and it is one that a lot of candidates never practise.

Can I hear an OPIc question again?

ACTFL's documents do not say. The Familiarization Guide states only that you may review the instructions and the sample question twice before the test begins, which is a different thing from replaying a rated question during it. Neither that guide nor the Examinee Handbook contains any replay or repeat rule, so the widely repeated claim that you get one replay per question has no primary source behind it. Confirm it with whoever is administering your test, and prepare as though you will hear each question once.

How do I practise for questions I cannot predict?

Practise the moves rather than the answers: describing something familiar, comparing two things, narrating a past event, handling a complication and asking a question back. Every OPIc question is one of those in a costume. A conversation partner that responds unpredictably trains this better than any question list, which is what SpeakShark's free tier is for.