The best decisions come from understanding not just what people like but what they value most.
For example, if your company is planning an office event but isn’t sure which option employees prefer, a ranking survey question can help. Unlike rating scales or multiple-choice questions, ranking forces respondents to prioritize their choices.
Let’s say HR presents three options: (a) a lunch and learn, (b) a walkathon, and (c) a mindfulness session. By asking employees to rank these in order of preference, you’ll uncover which event they truly value—not just tolerate.
Curious about how ranking questions work? Read on for tips, best practices, and 30+ examples for marketers, researchers, and HR professionals.
What is a ranking survey question?
A ranking survey question asks respondents to rank choices from most to least preferred, revealing how they prioritize options relative to each other.
This type of survey question is ideal when you need to force a choice. Ranking questions differ from multiple-choice and rating questions because they don’t offer a “neutral” or “neither agree nor disagree” answer option.
Ranking questions are commonly used in market research, customer satisfaction surveys, and employee feedback surveys.
For example, in the image below, respondents rearrange the options to fit their preferences.
It’s important to note that ranking questions should only be used when you know people will have an opinion on the options. For instance, a person with gluten intolerance may not be able to have most of these dessert options, which can impact the results.
Related: Ranking vs. rating explained
30+ examples of ranking survey questions
Whether you're a market researcher, employer, educator, or business owner, these questions can offer valuable insights when used strategically. To help illustrate their versatility, let’s look at sample ranking questions tailored to each of the categories below.
Related: How to create a ranking question
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Ranking questions for market research
- Rank these product features in order of importance to you.
- Price
- Durability
- Brand reputation
- Eco-friendliness
- Design
- Rank the following reasons for purchasing a product like ours.
- Peer recommendations
- Online reviews
- Social media ads
- In-store displays
- Rank these packaging elements in terms of influence on your buying decision.
- Colors
- Sustainability
- Size
- Visual design
- Rank the following promotional methods based on what gets your attention most.
- Email newsletters
- Social media ads
- TV/radio ads
- Rank these pain points in your shopping experience.
- Long checkout times
- Poor customer service
- Limited payment options
- Difficult return process
- Rank these sources of brand discovery based on how you first hear about new products.
- Word of mouth
- Social media
- Google search
- In-store experience
- Rank these factors based on how likely they are to influence a repeat purchase.
- Product quality
- Customer service
- Consistent pricing
- Shipping experience
Ranking questions for employees
- Rank the following job benefits in terms of importance to you.
- Health insurance
- Remote work flexibility
- PTO/vacation time
- Retirement contributions
- Rank the following sources of workplace stress.
- Lack of resources
- Poor communication
- Unclear expectations
- Rank the following aspects of your team environment by importance.
- Collaboration
- Trust
- Communication
- Accountability
- Rank these leadership traits in order of importance.
- Transparency
- Empathy
- Strategic thinking
- Delegation skills
- Approachability
- Rank these tools or systems you use daily in terms of usefulness.
- Project management software
- Internal chat tools
- File-sharing platforms
- Rank the following factors in terms of what motivates you most at work.
- Recognition from leadership
- Bonuses or raises
- Team success
- Rank these aspects of workplace culture by importance to your job satisfaction.
- Inclusivity
- Clear communication from leadership
- Opportunities for advancement
- Work-life balance
- Team camaraderie
- Rank these communication methods based on how effective they are for staying informed at work.
- Team meetings
- One-on-one check-ins
- Company-wide emails
- Internal chat platforms
Ranking questions for teachers
- Rank these student engagement methods by effectiveness in your classroom.
- Group activities
- Visual aids
- Technology integration
- Open discussions
- Rank the following challenges in teaching.
- Student attention span
- Parental involvement
- Curriculum changes
- Classroom size
- Rank these learning outcomes in terms of priority.
- Critical thinking
- Teamwork
- Creativity
- Test performance
- Rank these classroom tools by their usefulness.
- Interactive whiteboards
- Printed textbooks
- Flashcards
- Rank your professional development needs.
- Classroom management
- Subject-specific knowledge
- Technology training
- Special education support
- Rank these parent-teacher communication methods by effectiveness.
- Phone calls
- Parent-teacher conferences
- Newsletters
- Rank these student behaviors in terms of their impact on classroom learning.
- Participation
- Preparedness
- Respect for peers
- Active listening
Ranking questions for customers
According to Forbes, 85% of customers are willing to go out of their way for better service. To validate this for your customer base, you could ask this ranking question:
- Rank these in order of most important to least important to your shopping experience.
- Convenience
- Great service
- Price
- Brand
Additional customer ranking question examples:
- Rank these support channels in order of preference.
- Live chat
- Phone support
- Help center/FAQs
3. Rank the following reasons you choose a specific brand.
- Product quality
- Loyalty rewards
- Customer service
- Brand values
4. Rank these delivery factors by importance.
- Fast shipping
- Free shipping
- Easy tracking
5. Rank the following shopping frustrations.
- Poor mobile experience
- Complicated checkout process
- Limited payment options
- Out-of-stock items
6. Rank these loyalty program features based on what makes you sign up.
- Points for purchases
- Birthday rewards
- Exclusive discounts
- Early access to products
7. Rank these email types based on which you’re most likely to open from a brand.
- Order updates
- Loyalty program reminders
- Personalized recommendations
8. Rank the following website features based on what improves your shopping experience most.
- Clear product images
- Easy navigation
- Product reviews
- Mobile responsiveness
Benefits of ranking questions
Ranking survey questions offer valuable insights by helping you uncover true priorities and make meaningful comparisons. Read on to discover the key benefits of using this question type in your research.
Helps identify true priorities
Ranking questions are incredibly helpful for uncovering survey takers' true priorities and preferences. By asking participants to rank items, you prompt them to make direct comparisons, revealing what matters most.
For example, you could ask employees to rank team-building activities based on their level of interest. This allows you to identify the most consistently preferred option, enabling you to choose an activity with confidence that aligns with the team’s preferences.
Enables better decision-making
Ranking questions are a powerful tool for decision-making, especially when you need to break a tie between top choices. If you're deciding between two or three leading options, asking respondents to rank them forces a clear preference, revealing which option truly stands out.
By having survey takers prioritize a short list, you gain sharper insights into what matters most, helping you make more confident, data-driven decisions.
Reduces response bias
Response bias occurs when respondents answer questions inaccurately, often due to social pressure or the desire to give a more acceptable response.
This is common with questions about personal habits or opinions. For instance, someone might underreport how often they drink alcohol to appear more socially responsible.
Minimizing response bias is essential for collecting reliable data. Survey ranking questions help reduce this bias by prompting respondents to make relative judgments rather than selecting a single, potentially “correct” answer.
By comparing multiple items, participants are more likely to reveal their true priorities, leading to more honest and unbiased insights.
Generates clear, comparative insights
Another key benefit of ranking survey questions is their ability to produce clear, comparative insights. By asking respondents to order items by preference, importance, or frequency, you can directly see how different factors measure up against one another.
Ranking responses reveal which options consistently rise to the top or sink to the bottom, helping you uncover audience priorities, emerging trends, and perception gaps.
This clarity supports more informed, data-driven decisions focused on what truly matters to your target audience.
Helps in understanding preferences
Ranking survey questions are a powerful way to uncover preferences and spot patterns in respondent behavior.
Unlike multiple-choice questions, which capture only a single selection, ranking questions reveal the full order of preference—giving you deeper, more nuanced insights into what your audience values most.
This makes them especially useful when you need to understand not just what people choose but how they prioritize their options.
When to use ranking questions
Ranking questions should be used sparingly to maintain their effectiveness, according to SurveyMonkey Research Scientist Wendy Smith.
“It’s a modern approach, but it’s more restrictive than choice modeling,” says Smith. "It’s a forced-choice question. You are getting the top stated choice, but that choice may not reflect true feelings."
Survey ranking questions work best when you want relative preferences. For example, if you want to find the top two dessert choices for an office party, a ranking question helps you identify the favorite and the runner-up.
Survey ranking is also great for tiebreakers with a set group of items on which people have an opinion. As long as the question pertains to something people will have an opinion about, it should work effectively.
Here are a few specific scenarios when you might choose to use a ranking survey question:
- Product feature prioritization. When you’re developing or improving a product and want to know which features users value most, ranking helps reveal the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves.
- Event planning preferences. If you're organizing an event and want to gauge interest in different activities, food choices, or dates, a ranking question helps you understand which options are most appealing to your attendees.
- Customer experience evaluation. To assess what factors matter most in a customer’s experience (e.g., price, speed, support, ease of use), ranking allows for more accurate prioritization than individual rating scales.
- Employee feedback. To guide internal improvements, ranking questions can help identify which aspects of workplace culture, benefits, or tools employees value most.
Types of ranking questions
Ranking questions come in several formats, from simple rank order to interactive drag-and-drop. Understanding these different approaches can help you choose the right format for your goals—let’s explore each one and when to use it.
Forced ranking
Forced ranking questions require respondents to assign a unique rank to each item in a list, with no ties allowed. This approach encourages clear distinctions in preference or importance, helping reveal true priorities and resolve ambiguous feedback, especially when definitive choices are needed.
Partial ranking
Partial ranking asks respondents to rank only a select number of items from a larger list, such as choosing their top three favorites out of ten options. This approach reduces cognitive load and prevents respondents from ranking items they may not know or care about.
Pairwise comparison
Pairwise comparison presents respondents with two options at a time and asks them to choose their preferred one. This process repeats across all possible pairs in the set, revealing relative preferences through direct, head-to-head comparisons.
Image ranking
Image ranking uses visuals instead of text as response options, allowing respondents to rank images based on preference or appeal. For example, a logo testing survey might ask customers to rank logo concepts from best to worst, making this method especially valuable for marketing teams’ testing.
Drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop ranking enables survey respondents to reorder options by dragging them into their preferred sequence, making the ranking process interactive, intuitive, quick, and user-friendly.
Tips for writing ranking questions
Good survey design improves data quality. That’s why we’re sharing some tips for writing effective ranking questions.
Keep the list short
The list should be no more than three to five options to rank. You’ll want to keep respondents’ attention and keep the list as simple as possible.
Use clear, comparable options
Ensure the options you choose are relevant, comparable, and written clearly. Try to keep the options to as few words as possible. Short phrases or single-word options are best.
Pre-test for comprehension
Sending your survey to a small sample before launching the official survey can help you test the quality and effectiveness of your questions. Pre-testing alerts you if respondents find any of the questions confusing or too complicated.
Don’t overuse ranking in one survey
Ranking questions can be highly effective, but they shouldn’t be used excessively within the same survey, as it can overwhelm respondents and cause survey fatigue. A good rule of thumb is to have no more than two or three ranking questions in a single survey.
Use digital tools that support ranking UX
You’ll want to ensure the survey builder you use supports a seamless user experience for ranking questions. SurveyMonkey offers ranking question formatting, allowing users to order options according to their preferences.
Create your ranking surveys with SurveyMonkey
Ranking survey questions can be incredibly useful for discovering people’s true preferences. Whether you’re hosting an employee movie night or evaluating product features, ranking questions can be helpful. This type of question encourages respondents to make a decisive and honest choice.
SurveyMonkey helps teams use ranking questions to survey their target audiences. Create quizzes and surveys at the click of a button to gather valuable data with SurveyMonkey. Our survey and quiz maker enables you to create professional surveys with little effort.