is que pasa standard in spanish or just a casual expression of whats up

Question

I have seen people using que' pasa frequently. Is that a standard in spanish language or part of slang.?

Answer 1

¿Qué pasa? literally means "What is happening/what happens?", but has been adapted to a well-recognized greeting.

I would guess it is in line with "What's up?", "What's going on?" and "What are you up to?", all of which are probably in the middleground of slang and standard.

To draw a further analogy, the English "How'd you do?" and "¿Qué pasa?" both mean the same thing and are typically answered with another "How are you?"/"¿Qué pasa?". - Helado_eclectico, Sep 20, 2014