Loop Questions, Repeating Questions & Dynamic Looping Logic in Surveys

This page is about repeat questions, also called loop questions or smart loops. It covers what they do and where to use them effectively.

What is a Repeat Question in Surveys?

A repeat question lets you loop through a set of questions based on the answers to a multiple-choice question. With looping turned on, you can ask the same question or set of questions several times without building each copy by hand. Repeat questions are also called Loop Question or Smart Loops in surveys.

Why you should use the Repeating Question?

Looping lets you run a set of questions again based on the answers to a multiple-choice question. Use a loop question when you need more detail about each answer someone selected. Repeat questions also keep the survey from feeling long and repetitive for the person taking it.

Once you are comfortable building repeat questions, you tend to see better response rates and faster completion times. Loop questions cut the length respondents have to sit through and make the survey more engaging. Smart loops work well for customer experience, brand experience, employee experience, product experience, and design experience surveys.

Also Read: Question and Answer Piping.

How to create a Repeat Question using BlockSurvey?

In BlockSurvey you can repeat either the current question or another question. The use cases below show how repeat questions help across different industries.

Use case 1:

The first question asks which email services a customer uses. Based on what they select, you then ask them to enter the email address for each one.

1. Create a new survey in BlockSurvey.

2. Add your first question. Assume it looks like the one below.

3. Add your second question to collect the email address, like below. The @ character (the recall function) is useful here. Recall pulls the answer from the first question into the second.

4. With recall set on the second question, turn on the 'Repeat question' option under the Options tab. Set the repeat question to 'Current Question' and the repeat by to 'Options'.

5. Select the Source question as 'Question 1', the question you are looping from. In this example that is 'Select all email services you use?'

6. For the source question choices, choose 'Selected choices' for now. The other options are All the choices and Unselected choices. That is all you need to set.

Now test the repeat questions by opening the preview.

Say you select Gmail and Zoho for the source question, then click Next.

In the preview you will see the repeat questions, like below.

For Gmail selection.

For Zoho selection.

Your first repeat question can feel tricky to set up. Once you have built a loop question or two, it becomes a simple way to give respondents a better experience. For a live example you can try yourself, Click Here.

Use case 2:

Say a manager needs to know how many people are on a team and wants each member's name.

1. Assume you have a question like the one below.



2. In the second question, collect the team members' names.
3. In Question 2, turn on Repeat question under Options , set the repeat question to 'Current Question', and set the repeat by to 'Source question's count'.



4. Select the source question as 'Question 1', How many members are on your Team?
5. For this type of repeat, the source question must be a number question.

Now preview the repeat questions:

With 3 members on the team, Question 2 repeats 3 times so you can enter each member's name.

Use case 3:

Here you want students to list 5 animal names in a quiz. A repeat question can collect all five.

1. Add a question like 'List 5 animal names'. Turn on Repeat question under Options and set the repeat question to 'Current Question'.
2. Set the repeat question to 'Current Question' and the repeat by to 'Count', then set the Count to 5.

In the preview the question repeats 5 times, so students can enter 5 animal names.

Use case 4:

Suppose you want to ask how many mental health counseling sessions someone attended in the last year. A repeat question handles this too.

The questions might look like the ones below.

In Question 2, set the repeat and choose the repeat question as 'Other Question'. Then add a condition.

Now try it yourself in a preview.

Enter the first session's details. If there were more sessions, select 'Yes' and enter the next one.

If you pick 'No' for Question 2, the loop ends and you can submit the survey.

Repeat questions are not available for a few question types, including Web 3 Identity Verification, Social Identity Verification, Cart, and Payment.

What are the advantages of Repeat question, Loop question, Smart loops in surveys?

Businesses can gather feedback on the product, support, and delivery in one survey instead of building a separate survey for each. Looping logic has a few clear benefits. It reduces response time and keeps the survey dynamic and focused. That is why it is also called a smart loop. It lets you reuse a set of questions based on the answer to a source question.

Also Read: Skip Logic Survey.

BlockSurvey makes repeat questions, loop questions, and smart loops straightforward to set up. Try one out on your next survey. To help you start, we put together a repeating question template you can build from.

Which Survey Tools Support Loop & Merge?

Not every survey builder can repeat a block of questions once per prior answer, carry selected options forward into a later question, or keep responses anonymous. The table below compares BlockSurvey with three common tools on those three points.

Tool	Loop / repeat a question block per prior answer	Carry-forward answer choices	Anonymity & encryption
BlockSurvey	Yes. Repeat a question by the options selected in a source question, by a source question's numeric count, or by a fixed count.	Yes. Answer Piping reuses a respondent's choices from one question as the answer choices in a later choice or matrix question.	End-to-end encrypted with a zero-knowledge design and anonymous response collection.
Qualtrics	Yes. Loop & Merge repeats a block of questions once for each selected item.	Yes. Carry Forward Choices copies selected or displayed choices into a later question.	Offers an Anonymize Responses option that strips IP and location. No documented end-to-end or zero-knowledge encryption.
SurveyMonkey	Not at the block level. The loop option repeats the whole survey for respondents allowed to answer multiple times, not a block per prior answer.	Yes. Carry Forward Responses reuses previous answer choices, on eligible paid plans.	Anonymous response options exist, but data is not end-to-end encrypted and the platform can access responses.
Google Forms	No native support. Sections can route by answer, but there is no built-in per-answer block repetition.	Not native. Answer choices cannot be carried forward without third-party workarounds.	Can collect email and IP addresses. No end-to-end encryption.

How to Set Up Repeating Questions in BlockSurvey

Use these five steps to loop a question so it repeats once for each answer a respondent gives.

1. Add the source question. Create the multiple-choice question that respondents answer first. Its answers drive how many times the later question repeats.
2. Open the repeat settings on the question you want to loop. Add the question that should repeat, then open its repeat or loop configuration.
3. Choose the repeat mode. Pick Repeat by Options to loop over the choices selected in the source question, Repeat by the source question's count to loop over a number the respondent entered, or Repeat by Count to loop a fixed number of times.
4. Select which source choices drive the loop. For option-based loops, decide whether to repeat for the selected choices, all choices, or the unselected choices.
5. Personalize each iteration and preview. Type the @ symbol or use the recall function to insert the current option into the repeated question, then preview the survey to confirm each loop shows the right value.

Repeat questions are not available for the Web3 Identity Verification, Social Identity Verification, Cart, or Payment question types.