What is branching logic?

Want to add question branching, forks, or conditional questions to your typeform? You need logic.

Note: Logic isn't available on our mobile builder just yet. Edit your form on a desktop to get the full power of logic!

Logic lets you create a form that responds to people’s answers. Respondents never have to skip irrelevant questions—because with logic, they’ll never even see them.

It’s also a great way of segmenting your audience and making the experience as easy as possible for them. The results? Higher completion rates, through a more personal experience for your respondents.

Let’s say you want to survey animal lovers. We’d start with a question like, “Are you a cat or a dog person?” But we don’t need dog lovers to see questions about cats, or cat lovers to see questions about dogs.

With logic, we can show cat lovers one set of questions, while dog lovers see another.

How to add Logic

You can set up branching rules directly while building content, or view and manage them visually using the Logic Map in the Workflow tab.

There are three main places to work with branching logic.

1. From the right-hand sidebar in the Content tab

You can create and edit branching rules from the right-hand sidebar when you’re in the Content tab. Click the + sign next to Branching in the sidebar to set up or edit your logic. This is useful when you want to apply logic as you build.

2. From the question directly

For questions with selectable answers such as Multiple Choice, you can add branching logic directly beside individual answer choices.

Question types where you can add branching logic directly beside the answer choices are:

• Multiple Choice
• Picture Choice
• Yes or No
• Legal

3. From the Workflow tab

You can click Branching in the Workflow tab or click directly on a question from the Logic Map to set up logic. The Logic Map gives an overview of all paths in your form. It’s useful for reviewing, validating, and troubleshooting more complex flows.

In our example, we’ll set up branching logic from the Content tab first, then check that it looks correct from the Logic Map.

We’ve added a Multiple Choice  question to ask respondents if they’re a dog or a cat person, and then two Question Groups, one for cat questions and one for dog questions. 

If respondents say they’re a cat person, we want them to see the questions about cats, and if they say they’re a dog person, we want them to see the questions about dogs.

We’ll click on the branching icon next to the Cat answer option...

...And set a rule: If “Are you a cat or a dog person?” is “Cat”, then Go to Cat questions. Then we'll click Save.

We’ll do the same for the dog questions by clicking on the branching icon next to the Dog answer option.

And setting the rule so that if “Are you a cat or a dog person?” is “Dog”, then Go to Dog questions. Then we'll click Save.

Next, we want to add logic to the last question in the first Question Group (about cats). Since the last question in our Cat Question Group is a Number question, it doesn’t have selectable answers, so it won’t display the branching icon beside answer choices. Instead, we’ll click the + sign next to Branching in the right-hand sidebar to set up the rule.

We’ll add a rule on this question to Always go to Default end. This way, after the cat person completes the cat questions, they’ll skip over the dog questions and see the Default end screen.

Click See all rules to check all the rules you've set up so far.

Now we want to check that the logic branching that we've set up looks correct. We’ll click on the Workflow tab to see the Logic Map. Your Logic Map will display the different paths a respondent can take in your form.

You can click Branching from the Workflow tab (or click directly on any question in the Logic Map) to edit the logic you've set up.

Of course, you can do much more than divide people into cat or dog lovers! 

If you’re using calculations to keep a score, you can show your respondents different questions or statements depending on their score.

You can set up multiple paths, too. With a Multiple Choice question, you can create different paths for each answer option. Logic is very flexible, so you can be creative with it.

Here are more examples of when to use logic:

• Make quizzes and tests that respond to results. Check these out.
• Conduct market research with forms that segment your audience.
• Create smart shopping carts.
• Hide content from respondents until they answer specific questions by using Branching and calculations.
• Make lead generation more efficient with a responsive template.
• Grow your business with form templates and survey templates that are more conversational.

Tips for building with logic

Map out your form on paper before you start, like the photo of the cat/dog survey above. It can be really helpful to draw out the structure of your form before you begin, especially if it’s going to be complex. Use your new Logic skills with our survey maker and form builder. Wondering how to ask? Check out our survey questions and employee engagement survey questions guides.