Survey Question
A Survey Question in Salesforce (SurveyQuestion in the API) is a standard object representing a single prompt within a Survey - the actual question that respondents answer.
Definition
A Survey Question in Salesforce (SurveyQuestion in the API) is a standard object representing a single prompt within a Survey - the actual question that respondents answer. Each Survey Question record holds a parent SurveyId (or SurveyVersionId), a parent Survey Page, a Name (the question text), a QuestionType (Single Select, Multi Select, Free Text, Long Text, Numeric, Rating, Slider, NPS, Date, Time, File Upload, Image, Ranking), an order/sequence within its page, an IsRequired flag, and validation settings. For choice-based questions, related SurveyQuestionChoice records hold the available answer options; for matrix and ranking question types, additional metadata structures support sub-questions and order. The Survey Question is where the substance of every survey lives - choosing the right question types, ordering, and required flags directly determines completion rates and data quality. Survey Questions can be referenced across multiple Survey Versions, enabling year-over-year comparison of the same metric (a CSAT question on the 2025 survey can be the same Survey Question on the 2026 survey, supporting longitudinal trend analysis).
In plain English
“A Survey Question is one item in a Salesforce Survey - like "How satisfied were you?" or "Which features do you use?" Each Survey Question has a type (rating, multiple choice, free text, etc.) and lives on a Survey Page within a Survey. Respondents' answers are captured as Survey Question Responses linked back to the Survey Question.”
Worked example
A product manager is building a quarterly Voice of Customer Survey in Salesforce. She adds five Survey Questions: a 0-10 NPS question ("How likely are you to recommend us?"), a single-select multiple-choice question on primary use case, a multi-select question on which features the customer uses, a 1-5 star rating question on documentation quality, and an optional free-text question for additional comments. For the multiple-choice and multi-select questions, she creates Survey Question Choice records for each option (B2B Sales, Customer Service, Marketing Operations, etc.). She marks the NPS question and use-case question as IsRequired, leaves the others optional. When 200 respondents complete the survey, each completion generates five Survey Question Response records - one per Survey Question they answered - feeding into the longitudinal CRM Analytics dashboard the product team uses for quarterly trend analysis.
Why Survey Question matters
Survey Question types map to different data shapes in the related Survey Question Response records. Single Select and Multi Select store ChoiceId references to the chosen Survey Question Choice records; Free Text and Long Text store the literal text response; Numeric, Rating, and NPS store integer values; Date and Time store ISO 8601 timestamps; File Upload stores a ContentDocumentId pointing to the uploaded file. This polymorphic data shape makes raw SOQL queries against Survey Question Response complex - most reporting flows go through Salesforce Reports or CRM Analytics datasets that handle the type-specific extraction.
Question wording is the highest-leverage design decision in any survey. Closed-ended questions (Single Select, Rating, NPS) produce structured data that's easy to analyze but constrain respondent expression; open-ended questions (Free Text) capture nuance but require text-analysis (manual coding, sentiment analysis through Feedback Management, or third-party NLP) to extract trends. Mature survey programs use a mix, with closed-ended questions doing the heavy quantitative lifting and one or two free-text questions for qualitative depth.
Survey Questions can be reused across Survey Versions for longitudinal comparison. When a CSAT survey is updated for 2026, keeping the core CSAT Survey Question intact (rather than creating a new one) preserves the year-over-year analytics - the same QuestionId appears in both 2025 and 2026 Survey Question Response data, enabling clean trend reporting. Replacing a question with a worded variant breaks the lineage and requires manual data reconciliation.
How to create Survey Question
Survey Questions are the individual prompts within a Survey — the actual questions respondents answer. Each Question record has a Type (Single Select / Free Text / NPS / Rating / etc.), required flag, and (for choice-based types) related Choice records. Most Survey Questions are created inline via Survey Builder rather than via the SObject directly.
- Open Setup → Surveys (or App Launcher → Surveys) → click into a Survey
Survey Questions are created inside Surveys via Survey Builder.
- Click Add Page (if needed) → drag a Question type onto the page
Page hierarchy: Survey → Pages → Questions. Each page has its own set of questions.
- Pick Question Type
Single Select / Multi Select / Free Text / Long Text / Numeric / Rating / Slider / NPS / Date / Time / File Upload / Image / Ranking. Each has different display + data shape.
- Set Question Text and Description
Question Text is the prompt; Description provides context ("answer thinking about your last 30 days of usage").
- Tick Required if mandatory
Required questions block submission; optional questions can be skipped.
- For choice-based: configure Choices via the Choices panel
Single Select / Multi Select / Ranking questions need answer options — add via the in-builder Choices editor.
- Configure Logic / Branching (optional)
Show/hide questions based on previous answers. "If NPS < 7, show the 'what would you change' question."
- Save the Survey
Questions are now part of the survey. Activate the survey to start collecting responses.
Required by association.
Required. Locked at creation.
Required. The actual prompt.
- Question Type is locked once a Survey collects responses. Changing the type would orphan existing responses — Salesforce requires versioning the Survey to change types after submissions exist.
- Logic / Branching can create skip patterns hard to debug. Test with various response paths before launching to production.
- Salesforce Surveys (free tier) limits questions per survey. The cap varies; complex multi-page surveys may exceed limits — check the edition's allowance.
How organizations use Survey Question
Maintains a stable set of core Survey Questions (NPS, satisfaction, primary use case) reused across Survey Versions every quarter. Trend reporting is straightforward because the underlying Survey Question identifiers remain consistent - adding new questions doesn't disrupt the longitudinal core.
Uses a mix of Rating Survey Questions (clinician communication, wait time, facility cleanliness) and a single Free Text question for additional concerns. The Rating questions feed quarterly dashboards; the Free Text responses are processed through Feedback Management's sentiment analysis to surface concerning comments for clinical leadership.
Builds Multi Select Survey Questions covering current feature usage, with conditional branching that surfaces deeper Free Text questions only for respondents who indicated interest in a specific feature area. The branching keeps the survey short for most respondents while gathering qualitative depth from the most engaged segments.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Survey Question.
- SurveyQuestion in Object Reference for the Salesforce PlatformSalesforce Developer Documentation
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