Conditional branching in polls
Skip people past questions that don't apply, or end a poll early, based on one exact answer. Rules only jump forward, and the path runs in the browser.
- Poll authors
- 5 min read
- Updated Oct 14, 2026
A branching rule says: if the answer to this question is exactly that, jump to a later question, or end the poll. That's the whole model; it's deliberately small, so every rule you can build is one that behaves the way it reads.
Branching lets people skip questions that don't apply to them. Someone who says they don't manage anyone shouldn't have to wade through five questions about their direct reports.
#What a rule can do
Every rule has three parts:
- A source question: the question whose answer decides the path.
- An answer: the exact value that triggers the rule.
- A target: a later question to jump to, or the end of the poll (shown as End survey).
A few hard limits follow from that, and they're checked when you save and when you publish:
- Forward only. A rule can only jump to a question after its source. A rule pointing backwards, or at the same question, is refused with "Branching targets must be later questions (forward-only)". Because every jump goes forward, a poll can never loop.
- One condition per rule. There's no AND or OR. If two answers should both lead to the same place, add two rules.
- Exact match only. A rule fires when the answer equals the value: a single-choice option, a number on a scale or an NPS question, or text typed exactly. On a multiple-choice question it fires if the respondent ticked that option. There's no "greater than" or "contains".
- The rule has to point at questions that exist. If you delete a question a rule refers to, the poll won't save or publish until you remove that rule.
What isn't checked: whether an answer value is actually one the question offers, or whether every question can still be reached. A rule whose value no one can give simply never fires, so check your values against the options.
If a question has several rules, the first one that matches wins. If none match, the respondent carries on to the next question as normal.
#A worked example
A team pulse with five questions:
- Question 1: Do you manage people? (Single choice: Yes / No)
- Question 2: How supported do you feel in managing your team? (Scale 1 to 5)
- Question 3: Do you have enough time for one-to-ones? (Single choice)
- Question 4: How clear are this quarter's priorities? (Scale 1 to 5)
- Question 5: Anything else you'd like to share? (Open text)
Questions 2 and 3 only make sense for managers. One rule does it:
| If | answer is | go to |
|---|---|---|
| Do you manage people? | No | How clear are this quarter's priorities? |
A manager answers Yes, the rule doesn't match, and they see all five questions. Everyone else answers No and goes straight from question 1 to question 4.
To end the poll early instead, point the target at End survey. For example, on an optional follow-up poll, "Would you like to answer three more questions?" = No can end it there.
#Adding rules in the builder
In the poll wizard's Questions step on a desktop-width screen, open Branching rules (optional) below your questions. It appears once the poll has two or more questions. Each rule is listed as If [question] = [answer] → [target], with Remove beside it.
+ Add rule asks you to pick the source question, then prompts for the answer that triggers it (listing the options, where the question has them) and for the target.
Reordering questions keeps your rules, because they're attached to the questions rather than to their positions. If a move leaves a rule pointing backwards, the poll won't save or publish until you fix or remove it.
#What respondents see
On a poll with branching rules, questions appear one at a time as they're answered, and the path is recalculated if someone goes back and changes an answer. Questions that were skipped aren't part of the response that's submitted.
The path is worked out in the respondent's browser. We don't need to see an answer to route anyone, and the choice of path isn't sent to us separately from the encrypted response.
#Question types that can't start a rule
A ranking question never triggers a rule. Its answer is an order, not a single value, so "the answer is X" can't be tested. See ranking questions. Branch on a single-choice question instead.
Rules on open text, word cloud and date questions compare the exact text typed, which makes them fragile: "no" and "No." won't match the same rule. Use them only when you know what people will type.
#Rules that come in with an import
Importing from Typeform or Qualtrics brings conditional logic across when it fits this model: forward jumps and ends, on one exact answer. Anything that doesn't fit; show/hide logic, compound conditions, backward jumps, or a rule that starts from or lands on a question that became a grid; is dropped with a warning naming the question, rather than turned into a different rule. Every imported rule passes the same checks before it reaches your draft. Details in importing questions from another tool.