Close-ended questions offer respondents answers from which to choose. The question format may ask for a simple "yes" or "no" in response to a statement, provide a checklist from which to choose one or more answers, or offer a rating scale to measure the strength of the respondents' opinions along a continuum. Closed-end surveys are readily tabulated, often by machine, and offer easy comparability among the responses.

Open-ended questions ask respondents to answer in their own words. These responses are valuable because they reveal more completely how the respondent thinks. But since the answers are less comparable, they are more difficult and time-consuming to analyze and score.