> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.skillsdb.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Questions > Build and manage a reusable bank of questions in SkillsDB — create scored and unscored questions, link them to careers and skills, reuse them in assessments and surveys, and track versions. > [!NOTE] > > **Quick Summary:** The Questions library is an administrator-only bank of reusable questions. You create a question once, then link it to careers, sections, skill groups, or skills and reuse it in assessments and surveys. Every edit creates a new version, and launched surveys and assessments stay pinned to the version they launched with. ## Overview The Questions library is the central question bank for your organization. Instead of retyping the same question into every assessment or survey, administrators write each question once in **Library > Questions** and reuse it wherever it is needed. A question can be a knowledge check with a correct answer, a short free-text prompt, a drop-down choice, or a file upload request. Questions connect to the rest of SkillsDB in two ways. First, you can link a question to a career, a career section, a skill group, or an individual skill. Linked questions are posed to people when they are assessed against that career or skill. Second, the Assessment Builder and the survey builder both let you pick saved questions from the bank, so the same question can appear in many places while you maintain it in one. Because questions can carry an answer key, the library is restricted to administrators. Question rows and the question detail page show which options are correct, so managers and employees cannot open **Library > Questions**, even by typing its address. Employees only ever see a question when it is posed to them inside an assessment or survey. Every saved change to a question creates a new version. Surveys and assessments that have already launched keep the exact version they launched with, so editing a question never changes work that people have already started. This gives administrators a safe way to improve wording or fix an answer key over time while keeping a full history of every change. ## Prerequisites Before you use the Questions library, you need: * **Permission level**: Administrator role. The Questions library is not available to managers or employees. * **Setup requirement**: The **Questions** library must be turned on in **Company > Settings > Hide Library Sections**. The library is on by default. * **Access requirement**: **Library > Questions** in the left sidebar > [!NOTE] > > **Note:** Turning **Questions** off in **Company > Settings > Hide Library Sections** hides the library from every administrator, including you. Unlike the other libraries, there is no administrator bypass, because administrators are the library's only audience. ## Turning the Questions library on or off Administrators control whether the Questions library appears in the sidebar. The setting lives with the other library visibility toggles. **1. Open Settings** Navigate to **Company > Settings**. **2. Open library visibility** Find the **Hide Library Sections** row and select **Configure**. The **Manage Library Visibility** dialog opens. **3. Toggle Questions** Switch **Questions** on or off. The row is labeled "Visible to admins only" because no other role can see this library. When the setting is on, **Questions** appears under **Library** in the sidebar for every administrator. When the setting is off, the sidebar entry disappears and direct links to **Library > Questions** are refused. Turning the library off does not delete any questions, and questions already used in assessments and surveys keep working. ## Creating a question You create questions from the library itself, or from a career or skill page when you want the new question linked to that career or skill straight away. **1. Open the Questions library** Navigate to **Library > Questions**. **2. Start a new question** Open the **Actions** menu at the top of the page and select **Question** under **Add New** (or press ⌘K / Ctrl+K and search for "Add question"). If the library is empty, select **+ Question** in the empty state instead. **3. Choose a question type** In the **Create a question** dialog, choose a type. The type cannot be changed later, so pick the one that matches how people should answer. **4. Write the question** The **Create Question** page opens. Enter the question text in **Question** (required). Optionally add a **Description**, which is extra context shown with the question, and attach **Labels**. **5. Add response options** For Multiple Choice and Drop Down questions, add at least two options with **Add option**, and choose **Single Select** or **Multi Select** under **Response options**. You can also select **Import CSV** to load many options at once. For a File Upload question, choose the file type that uploaded answers are filed under. **6. Save** Select **Create Question**. The new question opens on its detail page, where you can link it to careers and skills. You can create these question types: | Type | How people answer | Can be scored | | - | - | - | | **Multiple Choice** | Pick one or more options from a list | Yes | | **Drop Down** | Pick from a compact list | No | | **Text Response** | Answer in their own words | No | | **File Upload** | Attach a file as the answer | No | The bank can also hold **Rating**, **Confirm Certifications**, **Yes / No**, and **Likert** questions that were created in the survey builder. You can view and edit them in the library, but you cannot create those types from **Library > Questions**. ## Making a question scored A scored question has an answer key, so responses are graded as correct or incorrect. Only Multiple Choice questions can be scored. To make a Multiple Choice question scored, mark one or more of its options as correct in the question editor. If you leave every option unmarked, responses are collected but never graded, and the question is unscored. The **Scored** column in the library shows whether each question is **Scored** or **Unscored**. The grading rule depends on the selection mode: * If the question is **Single Select**, then a response is correct when any one correct option is chosen. * If the question is **Multi Select**, then a response is correct only when the selected options exactly match the set of correct options. The detail page shows each correct option with a **Correct** badge. Correct answers are visible there because the page is admin-only. ## Linking questions to careers and skills Linking decides where a question is posed. When a question is linked to a career, a section, a skill group, or a skill, it is posed to people who are assessed against that career or skill. To link a question from its detail page: **1. Open the question** Navigate to **Library > Questions** and select the question. **2. Choose where to attach it** Open the **Actions** menu and, under **Attach to**, select **Career**, **Section**, **Skill group**, or **Skill**. Once a question is attached to something of that kind, the same option appears under **Change** instead. **3. Pick the targets** Search for and select the careers, sections, skill groups, or skills, then confirm. The question's **Related** section lists every career, section, skill group, and skill it is linked to, plus the surveys and assessments that use it. The **Posing** panel shows how each career or skill poses its questions: **Pose every question**, **Only questions not yet answered correctly**, or **Randomly pose one**. You change the posing mode on the career or skill itself, not on the question. Only Multiple Choice questions can be linked to careers and skills. Questions of every other type are posed through surveys, and their detail page shows "Not posed anywhere — questions of this type are posed through surveys and cannot be linked to a career or skill." You can also add questions from the other direction. On a career page or a skill page, open the **Actions** menu and select **Question** under **Add New** to create a question, or **Question** under **Search to Add** to attach an existing one. ## Using questions in assessments and surveys The Assessment Builder and the survey builder both open the same **Add a question** picker. From the picker you can search saved questions in the bank or create a new one with **Create a new question**. When a survey or assessment launches, it pins the current version of each question it uses. Later edits to the question create new versions in the library, but the launched survey or assessment keeps showing the pinned version. This means editing a question never changes what people see in work that is already in progress. See [Manager Assessments](https://help.skillsdb.com/manager-guide/manager-assessments.md) for how questions fit into the Assessment Builder. ## Finding and organizing questions The library table shows **Name**, **Type**, **Scored**, and **Labels** by default. Use the **Display** menu to add **Careers (#)**, **Skills (#)**, **Surveys (#)**, **Assessments (#)**, **Options (#)**, **Version**, **Created by**, and **Last updated**. Use the view menu next to the page title to switch between **Active**, **Archived**, and **All** questions. Group the table **Alphabetical**, by **Label**, **Career**, **Skill**, **Skill group**, or **Type**, or choose **None** for a flat list. When grouped by career, label, skill, or skill group, a question appears once under each group it belongs to. The filter menu offers these filters: | Filter | What it narrows to | | - | - | | **Question text** | Questions whose text is, or contains, the value you enter | | **Scored** | Scored or unscored questions | | **Labels** | Questions with any of the chosen labels | | **Question Status** | **Unlinked**, **Never used**, **Used in a survey**, **Used in an assessment**, or **Unlinked and never used** | The **Question Status** filter is useful for cleanup. For example, **Unlinked and never used** finds questions that are attached to nothing and have never been asked. To export, open the **Actions** menu and select **Export** under **Export**. The file reflects your current filters and visible columns, and each question appears once even when the table is grouped. If you select rows first, only the selected questions are exported. ## Editing, archiving, and deleting questions **Editing.** Open a question and select **Edit** under **Manage** in the **Actions** menu. The editor shows the question's type and the same fields you used to create it. Select **Save** to create a new version. The **Versions** section on the detail page lists every version, what changed field by field, and which launched surveys or assessments are pinned to it. **Archiving.** Archiving removes a question from every picker so it can no longer be added to new assessments or surveys. Launched surveys and assessments keep their pinned versions, and the question's history is preserved. To archive, open the question and select **Archive question**, or select rows in the library and choose **Archive**. You can restore an archived question at any time with **Restore**. **Deleting.** Deleting permanently removes a question and its version history. To delete, open the question and select **Delete** under **Manage** in the **Actions** menu, or select rows in the library and choose **Delete**. > [!WARNING] > > **Warning:** A question used in a launched survey or assessment cannot be deleted. SkillsDB shows "This question can't be deleted" and offers **Archive instead**, so the history of launched work stays intact. Deleting an unused question cannot be undone. ## Common Questions > **Can managers or employees see the Questions library?** > > No. The Questions library is visible only to administrators, because question rows and detail pages show the correct answers. Managers and employees see a question only when it is posed to them in an assessment or survey. Direct links to **Library > Questions** are refused for every other role. > **Why can't I find Questions in the sidebar even though I'm an administrator?** > > The **Questions** library has been turned off in **Company > Settings > Hide Library Sections**. Unlike the other libraries, administrators do not bypass this setting. Turn **Questions** back on in the **Manage Library Visibility** dialog to restore the sidebar entry. > **If I edit a question, does it change assessments that are already running?** > > No. Each saved edit creates a new version. Surveys and assessments that have already launched stay pinned to the version they launched with, so people in progress see no change. New surveys and assessments use the latest version. > **Which question types can be scored?** > > Only Multiple Choice questions can be scored. Mark one or more options as correct to make a Multiple Choice question scored. Drop Down, Text Response, and File Upload questions are always unscored. > **Why can't I delete a question?** > > A question that has been used in a launched survey or assessment can only be archived. Deleting it would remove history that launched work depends on. Archive the question instead to hide it from every picker while keeping its history. > **Can I change a question's type after creating it?** > > No. The type is chosen when you create the question and stays fixed. To use a different type, create a new question of that type and archive the old one. ## Related Articles > **[Manager Assessments](https://help.skillsdb.com/manager-guide/manager-assessments.md)** > > Build assessments that pose questions from the bank > **[Surveys](https://help.skillsdb.com/core-concepts/surveys.md)** > > Create surveys that reuse saved questions > **[Careers](https://help.skillsdb.com/core-concepts/careers.md)** > > Link questions to careers, sections, and skill groups > **[Skills Library](https://help.skillsdb.com/libraries/skills.md)** > > Link questions to individual skills > **[Checklists](https://help.skillsdb.com/libraries/checklists.md)** > > Another admin-only library for step-by-step procedures > **[Labels](https://help.skillsdb.com/configurations/labels.md)** > > Organize questions with labels ## Need More Help? If you need additional assistance: * Email [support@skillsdb.com](mailto:support@skillsdb.com) * Use the in-app help chat * Schedule a training session with your account manager This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.