Open ended vs closed ended questions
Open ended questions let people answer in their own words and show the reasons behind an answer. Closed ended questions offer fixed choices and produce counts that are quick to compare. Use closed questions to measure how many people think something, and open questions to find out why.
Definitions with examples
SurveyMonkey’s guide to the two formats describes open questions as letting respondents answer in their own words, and closed questions as capturing structured data through predefined answer choices. The examples below show the difference on the same topic.
| Topic | Closed version | Open version |
|---|---|---|
| Support | How satisfied were you with our support? (1 to 5) | What could our support team have done differently? |
| Pricing | Which best describes the price? (too high, about right, too low) | What would make the price feel fair to you? |
| Event | Would you attend a similar event? (yes or no) | What would bring you back to an event like this? |
| Hiring | How clear was the job description? (1 to 5) | Which part of the job description was unclear? |
What each format gives you
A closed question tells you how many people hold a view, and it lets you compare the answer across teams, months or products. It is fast to read and easy to chart. Its limit is that the options are the only things the respondent can say. If the true answer is missing from the list, it is lost.
An open question tells you what people mean. It surfaces the cause you did not think to offer. Its limits are cost and selection: each answer takes reading, and the people who write long answers may not represent everyone who answered.
Pair them on purpose
The most useful pattern is a closed question that measures and an open question that explains the measure. Ask the open question first, though, when you want the respondent’s own view untouched. Pew Research Center reports that closed questions placed before an open question on the same topic make people more likely to mention the ideas those closed questions raised. So the order decides whether you learn what they think or what your options suggested.
A quick decision rule
Make open answers usable
An open question left unread is wasted. Decide before the survey closes how you will read the answers. Write a short list of themes first, based on the question’s purpose, then code each answer to one or more themes. A second reader coding a sample of about twenty answers shows whether the themes mean the same thing to two people. Count the themes only after that check.
A worked example: coding ten answers
Suppose ten people answer “What could we improve about the sign-up process?” (a hypothetical set). Before reading them, the team writes three codes: form length, confusing wording, and technical problems. Reading the answers, six mention the length of the form, four mention a field whose label is unclear, and one mentions the page crashing on a phone. Some answers carry two codes, so the counts add to more than ten.
The useful output is not the count alone. The two codes that appear most often point at two specific edits, a shorter form and a clearer label. The single technical report goes to whoever owns the mobile page, because it is one person’s bad day or a bug that will reach everyone.
Check before you send
- Every closed question has an answer option for the case you did not expect, or an “other” option.
- Each open question says what kind of answer you want, so people are not guessing.
- Open answers are placed where they are needed, with the order between open and closed decided on purpose.
- You have written your codes before you read the answers.
Build it in Seagit Forms
Seagit Forms has a text field for short open answers and a textarea for longer ones, next to the radio, checkbox, dropdown and rating fields for closed questions. The fields documentation lists them. Responses can be exported as CSV, which is where you would code open answers in a spreadsheet. For a survey that asks for candour on a sensitive topic, the anonymous feedback form template leaves out the name field.
Sources
- SurveyMonkey, “Open-ended vs close-ended questions: Best practices, tips, & examples” (definitions of each format).
- Pew Research Center, “Writing Survey Questions” (open questions placed after related closed questions).
Common questions
- Are open ended questions better than closed ended ones?
- Neither is better in general. Closed questions give counts and comparisons across many respondents. Open questions give the reasons and the wording people use. Choose by the decision the answer will feed.
- How many open ended questions should a survey have?
- There is no fixed count. Add an open question where a reason would change what you do, and only as many as you have time to read and code. Each open answer takes time to read.
- Can open answers be turned into numbers?
- Yes, by coding them into themes and counting how often each theme appears. Do this with a fixed list of codes written before you read the answers, and have a second person check a sample, so the counts reflect the answers rather than the reader.