Brave Gryffindor, loyal Hufflepuff, clever Ravenclaw or ambitious Slytherin? Almost every Harry Potter fan has an opinion about which house they belong in, and a house quiz is one of the easiest ways to get a room talking.
This is an unofficial fan quiz written by the AhaSlides team for fun. It is not the Sorting Hat, and it is not connected to Warner Bros., J.K. Rowling or Wizarding World. If you want the official answer, take the Sorting Ceremony on HarryPotter.com, the quiz created by J.K. Rowling that first appeared on Pottermore. Use ours as a warm-up, a party game or an icebreaker, then compare your result with the official one.
The four Hogwarts houses at a glance
The traits below follow the Sorting Hat's song in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as quoted on the official Wizarding World explainer.
| House | Founder | What the Sorting Hat values | Animal | Colors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gryffindor | Godric Gryffindor | Bravery, daring, nerve and chivalry | Lion | Scarlet and gold |
| Hufflepuff | Helga Hufflepuff | Loyalty, fairness, patience and hard work | Badger | Yellow and black |
| Ravenclaw | Rowena Ravenclaw | Wit, learning and a ready mind | Eagle (a raven in the films) | Blue and bronze (blue and silver in the films) |
| Slytherin | Salazar Slytherin | Cunning, and the will to achieve their ends | Serpent | Green and silver |
Harry Potter house quiz: 15 questions
Pick the answer that sounds most like you, not the one you think your favourite character would pick. Keep a tally of your letters as you go; the scoring key is below.
- You meet a grindylow in the Black Lake. What do you do?
a) Swim straight at it and scare it off
b) Make sure your friends are safe before anything else
c) Remember what you read about grindylows and use their weak spot
d) Stay calm and work out how to turn the encounter to your advantage - It's the morning of a big Quidditch match. How do you spend it?
a) Out on the pitch early, itching to play
b) Making sure the whole team has had breakfast
c) Studying the other team's past games for patterns
d) Working out how to rattle the opposing Seeker - A big exam is coming up. What is your plan?
a) Trust your nerve and tackle the hardest topics first
b) Set a steady study timetable and stick to it
c) Read beyond the syllabus because the subject fascinates you
d) Find out exactly what the examiner marks highest - Someone challenges your opinion in class. How do you respond?
a) Stand your ground, even if the whole class disagrees
b) Listen properly and look for a fair middle ground
c) Ask for their evidence, then weigh it against yours
d) Win the room over with a clever argument - A boggart jumps out of a wardrobe. What happens next?
a) You step forward first and cast Riddikulus
b) You stay by the classmate who is most frightened
c) You think about what your boggart would become before you face it
d) You hang back until you are sure you can beat it with everyone watching - How would you like to spend your birthday?
a) Something adventurous, like a night-time walk around the grounds
b) A cosy feast with all your closest friends
c) A quiet afternoon with a stack of new books
d) A party where all the right people turn up - On a Hogsmeade trip, where do you head first?
a) The Shrieking Shack, because everyone says it's haunted
b) The Three Broomsticks, to save seats for the whole group
c) Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, to stock up on parchment and quills
d) Wherever the older students with the best connections are going - You land detention in the Forbidden Forest. How do you handle it?
a) Volunteer to go deeper into the forest
b) Get on with the task without complaining
c) Take notes on every creature you spot
d) Talk your way into the easiest part of the job - You find a rare ingredient in the Potions cupboard. What do you do?
a) Try it in a potion straight away
b) Share it so everyone gets a fair turn
c) Look it up and experiment carefully
d) Keep it quiet and use it to top the class - Which founder do you most admire?
a) Godric Gryffindor, for his courage
b) Helga Hufflepuff, for welcoming everyone
c) Rowena Ravenclaw, for her wisdom
d) Salazar Slytherin, for his ambition - A friend fails a test. What do you say?
a) "Don't give up, you'll smash it next time"
b) "I'll help you revise, every evening if you like"
c) "Let's go through what went wrong, question by question"
d) "Let's find out what the teacher is really looking for" - You discover a hidden room in the castle. What do you do?
a) Explore it right now, whatever is inside
b) Tell your friends so you can share it
c) Research its history in the library
d) Keep it secret and work out how it can help you - A Bludger knocks you off course mid-match. What do you do?
a) Climb back on and fly straight back into the game
b) Check your teammates are all right first
c) Work out where the Beaters are aiming and adjust
d) Use the chaos to steal a march on the other team - You finish your homework early. What next?
a) Sneak out to practise a spell you are not supposed to know yet
b) Help a friend who is still stuck
c) Start reading for next term
d) Ask a teacher how you could earn top marks next term - Which quality annoys you most in other people?
a) Cowardice
b) Unfairness
c) Closed-mindedness
d) Lack of ambition
Scoring key: which house are you?
Count up your letters. Mostly:
- a) Gryffindor. You lead with courage and act first. Like Harry, Hermione and Ron, you would rather face a problem head-on than wait for it to go away.
- b) Hufflepuff. You are loyal, fair and patient, and you do the work nobody else notices. Newt Scamander and Cedric Diggory would be proud.
- c) Ravenclaw. You are curious and love ideas, and you want to understand something before you act. Luna Lovegood would approve.
- d) Slytherin. You are ambitious and resourceful, and you always have a plan. Ambition is not the same as villainy: plenty of Slytherins are simply determined.
A tie between two houses is common. In the books, the Sorting Hat considered putting Harry in Slytherin before placing him in Gryffindor after he asked not to go in Slytherin, so choosing between two close houses is very much in the spirit of Hogwarts.
How to run this house quiz with a group
We use house quizzes as icebreakers at team socials and as a warm-up before a Harry Potter trivia round. A personality quiz has no right answers, so the fun is in seeing how the room splits.
- Ask each question as a poll. Put each question on a poll slide with the four options. Everyone answers on their phone, and the room sees the results as a live bar chart, so you can react to surprises ("half of you would sneak into the Shrieking Shack?").
- Finish with a house tally. End with a final poll, "Which house did you get?", to see how the group sorted itself. It is a natural way to split people into four teams for the next activity.
- Settle ties with a spinner wheel. If someone lands on a tie, put their two houses on a spinner wheel and let the room watch it decide.
- Point people to the official quiz afterwards. Share the HarryPotter.com Sorting Ceremony link so fans can compare their fan-quiz result with the official one.
You can set this up with an AhaSlides online poll maker slide for each question and the spinner wheel for tie-breaks, or start from a ready-made quiz in the template library. If your group wants a scored round after the sorting, try our Harry Potter quiz questions and answers.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the official Hogwarts house quiz?
No. This is an unofficial fan quiz by the AhaSlides team. The official Sorting Ceremony, created by J.K. Rowling, is on HarryPotter.com, the official Wizarding World site (formerly Pottermore).
Which house was Harry Potter in?
Gryffindor. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Sorting Hat tells Harry he could be great in Slytherin, but it puts him in Gryffindor after he asks it not to choose Slytherin.
Can you choose your Hogwarts house?
In the story, Harry's Sorting suggests the Hat takes your wishes into account. In the official online quiz, your answers decide your house, and the site lets returning fans retake it once. With a fan quiz like this one, you can simply retake it, but the honest answer is usually the more interesting one.
What are the four Hogwarts houses?
Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, named after the four founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.
