We had a pretty effective group of bridge players at college — and the bidding is certainly a decent obstacle.

However, if you’re just playing for fun and at least one person knows the basics of a decent bidding set (American Standard is usually fine) you can just ask openly - thinks like “do you have more than 13 points? A major suit with at least five points and five cards?”

And if bridge is a bridge to far you can play whisk or bid whisk as an intro.