FANDOM & VERSIONS
AO3 Rice Purity Test: What It Is and How It Differs
An AO3 purity test is a fan-made checklist about fandom or fiction. Its result is not interchangeable with a score from the classic Rice Purity Test.
You may be looking for a particular quiz a friend shared. Check that quiz’s URL and instructions: the words “AO3 Rice Purity Test” do not identify one agreed question list. This page explains the distinction and links to a verified example; it does not offer an official AO3 test.
What is AO3?
Archive of Our Own, usually shortened to AO3, is a nonprofit archive for transformative fanworks. It is a project of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). The OTW’s own project description explains its purpose.
A fan using an archive’s name in a quiz title does not establish that the archive created or endorses the quiz. Rice Purity HQ is also independent of AO3 and the OTW.
A real example: the Unofficial AO3 Purity Test
On October 26, 2026, the Unofficial AO3 Purity Test at Purity Test Maker displayed 200 numbered items. Its list consists of fandom tags and story conventions, alongside explicit sexual and violent topics. It is an external adult-content checklist, not the classic 100 questions.
We inspected the public question list, without submitting answers or testing its result calculation. We did not verify a separate privacy policy for that page, so we cannot promise how its answers or results are handled. Decide whether its instructions and data practices meet your needs before answering.
This example identifies one version. It does not establish an original creator for every AO3-themed quiz, a standard scoring rule, or permission for us to copy its questionnaire.
AO3 fan quiz versus classic Rice Purity Test
| Question | Rice Purity HQ classic test | AO3-themed fan quiz |
|---|---|---|
| What does it ask about? | Self-reported real-life experiences. | Check the version: it may ask about fiction, tags or fandom participation. |
| How long is it? | 100 scored items in classic-100-v1. | The linked example has 200; do not assume every version does. |
| What is the result? | 100 minus Yes answers when complete; an interval when incomplete. | Read the particular quiz’s scoring instructions. |
| Who is it for? | Adults; includes mature topics. | The linked example has adult content. “Fan-made” does not mean suitable for children. |
| Where do answers go? | Processed in your browser; see our privacy explanation. | Depends on the external operator. Our privacy explanation does not cover it. |
Reading fiction is different from living an experience
When a quiz asks what someone has read, the answer describes reading. It does not establish that they have done, want to do, or endorse an activity in a story. A tag checklist also cannot recover someone’s complete reading history.
For example, an answer about reading a romance plot and an answer about a real-life relationship refer to different things. Giving both a number out of 100 would not make them measurements of the same experience. Changing the length of a list or rescaling its result does not fix that difference.
Two people can meaningfully compare checklist arithmetic only after agreeing on the same items, instructions and treatment of unanswered questions. Neither result measures character, maturity or a person’s value.
Before sharing a fandom result
- Identify the exact quiz so the recipient knows what the number refers to.
- Read its sharing screen: a score card, public profile and complete answer sheet reveal different amounts.
- Choose what to disclose. You do not need to provide an AO3 account, reading history or individual answers to discuss a result.
- Let other people decline or skip topics. A quiz is not a reading challenge or a set of experiences to complete.
This article does not connect to an AO3 account or retrieve reading history. If you want the real-life checklist instead, take the classic Rice Purity Test or browse the question list and wording notes. For other formats, see tests like the Rice Purity Test.