Conditional logic
A condition shows one question only when an earlier question has a particular answer. It keeps a survey short for the people a follow-up does not apply to.
What a condition is
Every condition has the same three parts: a question to watch, a comparison — is or is not — and one answer. “Show What went wrong? only when Was your issue resolved? is No.”
A question has at most one condition. A question with no condition is always shown.
Setting one up
- Add the question that will drive the condition, then the follow-up beneath it.
- Open the follow-up’s settings and find Conditional logic.
- Choose the question to watch. Only eligible questions above this one are listed.
- Choose is or is not, then the answer.
- Press Done, save, and try it with Preview — the follow-up should appear and disappear as you change the first answer.
Editing the watched question’s options
A condition points at a specific answer. If you later delete that answer or change its value, the condition can no longer be met and the follow-up stays hidden for everyone. After editing the options of a question that others depend on, reopen each dependent question and re-select the answer.
How it behaves for a respondent
On a single-page survey the follow-up appears in place the moment the watched answer matches, and disappears if it stops matching.
On a paged survey — one question per page, or wizard steps — a condition on a question from an earlier page is decided when the respondent reaches the page. If every question on a page is hidden, the page is skipped in both directions, so nobody lands on a page with nothing but a Next button.
In the results, a conditional question simply has fewer answers than the survey has responses. Its percentages are out of the people who answered it.
What it does not do
- Combine conditions with AND or OR.
- Compare against a range, or against several answers at once.
- Depend on checkboxes, text, matrix, ranking or constant-sum answers.
- Jump to a named page, end the survey early, or change another question’s options.
A survey that needs those is better served by a dedicated research tool — where another tool is the better choice says so plainly.
Common questions
- How do I add a condition to a question?
- Hover the question in the editor and open its settings (the gear). Under Conditional logic choose the earlier question to watch, pick “is” or “is not”, and choose the answer. Press Done, then Save.
- Which questions can a condition depend on?
- Multiple choice, select, dropdown, Likert scale, NPS and star rating — questions with one answer from a known set. A condition cannot depend on checkboxes, text, a matrix or a ranking, and it can only watch a question that comes earlier in the survey.
- Can I show a question for a range, such as an NPS of 0 to 6?
- No. A condition compares against one answer. For a range, either use a question with fewer answers (“Would you recommend us? Yes / No / Not sure”) to drive the condition, or ask a neutral follow-up that reads correctly at any score.
- What happens to a required question that is hidden?
- It is not required while hidden and stores nothing. A respondent can never be blocked by a question they cannot see.
- What if someone answers a follow-up and then changes the answer that showed it?
- The follow-up disappears and its answer is discarded before the response is submitted, so you never receive an answer to a question that, by the final answers, was not asked.