SurveyMonkey is a widely used survey platform, with over 3.5 million surveys deployed annually and 25 million questions answered daily. Businesses, researchers, HR teams, universities, and marketers use it to collect insights.
However, the quality of data you collect, the insights you gather, and the decisions you can make from your survey depend on your survey question type. To help you create your next survey, here’s a breakdown of SurveyMonkey question types and when you can use each one.
SurveyMonkey question types
To gather the data you need, select the right types of survey questions. Below is a breakdown of commonly used SurveyMonkey question types and when to use them.
1. Open-ended questions
Open-ended survey questions are queries that give your respondents a text field for answering in their own words. They don’t offer predefined answers, so you capture unfiltered user opinions.
Where to use: Customer feedback, post-event surveys, product research, and anywhere else you need to collect qualitative insights
Example: What’s the biggest challenge you face when managing your team?
2. Multiple-choice questions
Multiple-choice questions come with a list of predefined answers. You can offer single-answer questions (the user selects one answer) or multiple-answer questions (the user selects all that apply). Both of these formats will produce structured data that’s easy to quantify and compare.
Where to use: Demographic profiling, preference research, customer segmentation, or any other situation when you want consistent, comparable responses
Example: Which of the following channels do you use to contact customer support? (Select all that apply)
☐Live chat
☐Phone
☐Social media
☐Other (Please specify)
3. Dichotomous (yes/no) questions
Dichotomous questions offer two answer options, usually
- Yes or no
- True or false
- Agree or disagree
These questions are the fastest types for your audience to answer, and they produce binary data.
Where to use: Screener questions, satisfaction checks, eligibility filters, and quick pulse surveys
Example: Did our support team resolve your issue?
☐Yes
☐No
4. Dropdown questions
A dropdown question presents answers inside a scrollable menu so your audience can go through lengthy choices without feeling overwhelmed. This format is suitable when you want to present response options without cluttering the page.
Where to use: Job title lists, country or region selection, department fields, age ranges, any other scenario when displaying all answers at once would clutter your questionnaire page
Example: Select your country of residence. [Dropdown menu of countries]
5. Ranking questions
Ranking questions ask your audience to arrange answers based on priority or preference. You can use this format to reveal trade-offs users make when forced to choose what they value most over what they’re willing to compromise on.
Where to use: Feature prioritization, product road map research, event planning, and any other case when relative preference matters more than absolute rating
Example: Rank the following product features from most to least important to you.
☐Speed
☐Ease of use
☐Customer support
☐Price
☐Integrations
6. Likert scale questions
Likert scale questions gauge the degree of agreement or satisfaction along a labeled, evenly spaced scale. Usually, the scale gives users five or seven options with descriptive labels, such as Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree.
Where to use: Employee engagement surveys, brand perception studies, customer satisfaction tracking, and academic research
Example: How important is it to you that your physician graduated from Harvard Medical School?
☐Very important
☐Important
☐Somewhat important
☐Not very important
☐Not important at all
7. Matrix questions
Matrix survey questions group related items into a single table so your survey respondents can compare them side by side. You can use matrix questions to compare satisfaction ratings or attitudes across multiple statements in a single structured grid.
Where to use: Customer satisfaction surveys rating multiple service dimensions, employee performance reviews, and product evaluation, when several attributes need the same response scales
Example: Please take a moment to rate each of the following aspects of our customer support.
Very satisfied | Satisfied | Neutral | Unsatisfied | Very Unsatisfied | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friendliness | ☒ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Knowledge | ☐ | ☒ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
| Quickness | ☐ | ☐ | ☒ | ☐ | ☐ |
8. Rating scale questions
A rating scale question asks respondents to select a numeric value that represents the intensity of their opinions or the likelihood of taking actions. Often, the scale is 1–5 or 1–10, with labeled endpoints that define each end of the range.
Where to use: Customer satisfaction scoring, Net Promoter Score surveys, product reviews, and performance tracking over time
Example: On a scale of 1–5, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or a colleague?
☐Very unlikely
☐Unlikely
☐Neutral
☐Likely
☐Very likely
9. Slider questions
Slider questions let the user rate something along a continuous numerical scale by dragging a marker to the point that best reflects their view. This question format adds an interactive element to surveys, which can improve engagement.
Where to use: Measuring likelihood, importance, or satisfaction
Example: Drag the slider to show how confident you feel about your purchase decision.
- 0 Not confident at all
- 100 Completely confident
10. Image choice questions
Image choice questions replace text answers with clickable images. Users select their answers by clicking on the image that best represents their preference.
Where to use: Brand and logo testing, packaging design feedback, advertising concept testing, and visual preference studies
Example: Which of the following logo designs best represents our brand? [three logo images displayed]
11. Benchmarkable questions
Benchmarkable questions use standardized wording and response options so your results can be compared against external industry data.
Where to use: Employee engagement measurement, customer satisfaction tracking, and any research where industry benchmarking matters
Example: Overall, how satisfied are you with your job?
☐Very dissatisfied
☐Dissatisfied
☐Neutral
☐Satisfied
☐Very satisfied
12. Demographic questions
Demographic survey questions collect background information about respondents, such as age, gender, education level, income range, location, and employment status.
With this format, you can segment responses and compare how different groups answer the same questions.
Where to use: Market research, academic studies, HR surveys, any other study for which understanding the respondent population enriches your data
Example: Which age range best describes you?
☐Under 18
☐18–24
☐25–34
☐35–44
☐45–54
☐55–64
☐65 or older
13. File upload questions
File upload questions allow the user to attach and submit a file as part of their survey response.
Where to use: Job applications, academic submissions, vendor evaluations, before-and-after photo collections, and any survey for which supporting material adds context to responses
Example: Please upload a sample of your recent work. [File upload field]
14. Click map questions
With a click map question, your respondent answers by selecting a point on an image. SurveyMonkey then records respondents’ clicks as coordinate data and displays them as a heat map to show you areas that drew the most attention or responses.
Where to use: Advertisement testing, website layout feedback, packaging design reviews, and user experience research when understanding visual attention is the goal
Example: Click on the part of this advertisement that draws your attention first. [Image display]
Jotform’s additional question types
On Jotform, you’ll get more question types than SurveyMonkey offers, all in a drag-and-drop form builder that requires no coding. These additional options give you greater flexibility in how you design and collect survey data.
1. Constant sum questions
Constant sum survey questions give survey takers a total value, such as 100 points, and ask them to distribute it across a list of options. These questions force respondents to make trade-offs and reveal true priorities.
Where to use: Budget allocation research, resource prioritization, consumer spending studies
Example: If you have $30,000 to allocate across the following business priorities, how would you distribute it based on what matters most to your team?
- Product development
- Customer support
- Marketing
- Hiring
- Operations
2. Visual analog scale questions
A visual analog scale presents a horizontal line or numeric range and asks survey takers to select a point that represents the intensity of their feeling or experience. It lets respondents drag to their exact position on the scale.
Where to use: Pain or discomfort measurement in healthcare surveys, mood or emotional intensity scales, and any study requiring a continuous, self-reported intensity rating
Example: On a scale from 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your current role? Drag the slider to your answer, where 1 is Very dissatisfied, and 10 is Very satisfied.
Jotform also covers all the question types available on SurveyMonkey, including
- Open-ended questions
- Close-ended questions
- Yes/no (dichotomous) questions
- Dropdown questions
- Image choice questions
- Click map questions
- Rating scale questions
- Slider questions
- Likert scale questions
- Ranking survey questions
- Matrix questions
- File upload questions
- Demographic questions
- Multiple-choice questions
- Nominal questions
- Benchmarkable questions
Beyond question types: Jotform’s advanced survey features
The right question types set you up to gather clearer, more accurate data across your survey questionnaire. But Jotform also offers advanced features that give your surveys more functionality and your data more utility than standard question formats can deliver.
Conditional logic
Jotform’s conditional logic lets you build surveys that adapt to each respondent’s answers in real time. Your surveys remain relevant while reducing the chances of respondents encountering questions that don’t apply to them.
Offline surveys
With offline surveys, your respondents can fill out and submit surveys without an internet connection. Jotform will store the data on the user’s device, and when they are back online, the data will automatically sync to your Jotform account. The offline capability makes Jotform surveys a practical solution for field research or events where a reliable connection is not guaranteed.
Jotform Tables track survey responses
Every survey response you collect through Jotform automatically goes to Jotform Tables, a spreadsheet-database hybrid where you can manage your response data. Jotform Tables also feeds into Jotform Report Builder, which you can use to auto-generate visual reports that update in real time as new responses come in.
Start building smarter surveys today
Jotform Online Survey Maker helps teams build better surveys with comprehensive question types and AI-assisted design tools, so each of your questionnaires is easier to create and analyze. With advanced survey features, you can go from idea to a polished survey in minutes. Get started for free today to get everything you need for an effective survey in one place.
This article is for survey creators, researchers, HR teams, marketers, universities, business teams, and anyone who wants to choose the right survey question types to collect clearer, more useful data.
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