Questions to kick off the first adventure of a campaign – “Why has Lord so-and-so sent you to the dungeon?” – send them out ahead of time and let people think about them, or hold them until the night of and see what everyone comes up with on the spot? (Characters already made.)
Only really ran one-shots before and everything happened same night, of course.
Were characters made as a group? If not, Bonds should definitely be done as a group.
And questions should be asked during play. Nothing really happens in the world unless you’re at “the table”.
Characters were made in partial groups online, but bonds are waiting for everyone to be online to start play. Definitely don’t want answers back from the players ahead of time, but to your point, answering questions on the spot could be seen as part of the game.
It sounds like you’ve played with this group before, so you can judge how they’d handle on-the-spot questions like that. If your players would have no problems answering questions as you ask them, then do it at the table. If they’ll shy away from the spotlight a bit, send them out early so people can think about it.
Got to wait on the players budget time for the questions and answers. It’s worth it.
So much of the magic happens from players riffing off each other’s answers. I don’t think you’d get that from questions you sent out in advance.
Also, the more time players have “working” on their characters solo, the more likely they are to come up with elaborate backstory that grinds against the spontaneous ideas generated in play.
At least, that’s been my experience. Your players might be totally different.