How to Play “Ride the Bus” (The Four Questions)
Ride the Bus is one of the most famous fast-paced card-based party games. This page plays The Four Questions with a freshly shuffled 52-card deck. Get all four right in a row to get off the bus. Every wrong guess adds penalty points and sends you back to card 1. Lowest score wins.
Guess whether the top card of the deck will be Red (Hearts/Diamonds) or Black (Spades/Clubs). Wrong guess? +1 penalty point and start again.
Guess if the next card will be strictly higher or strictly lower than your first card (Aces are high). The same value counts as a miss. Wrong guess? +2 penalty points and start again.
Will the 3rd card fall strictly between your first two cards (Inside) or outside their range (Outside)? Matching either card exactly is a miss. Wrong guess? +3 penalty points and start again.
The final 1-in-4 chance: guess the exact suit of the fourth card (Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs). Wrong guess? +4 penalty points and start again. Right? You are off the bus!
Playing with friends
Pass the phone around: each player rides the bus once and keeps their penalty points. The player with the fewest points wins the round. For extra fun, the highest score spins the Wheel of Punishment or takes a challenge from the Dare Wheel.
Tips
Middle cards (7–9) make Higher or Lower a coin flip, so think about which way the deck has more cards left. On Inside or Outside, a wide gap between your first two cards makes Inside the safer call; a narrow gap means go Outside.
More party games
Looking for more group fun? Try Truth or Forfeit, Heads Up or browse all free online party games.