---
title: Survey categories
description: Survey categories provide a way to group questions of a similar theme for a given survey.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/servicenow-platform/c\_SurveyCategory.html
release: australia
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Survey designer, Survey administration, Use surveys, Surveys, Assessments and Surveys, Exploring Service Administration, Service Administration, Manage service capabilities, Extend ServiceNow AI Platform capabilities]
---

# Survey categories

Survey categories provide a way to group questions of a similar theme for a given survey.

There must be at least one survey category per survey definition and every survey question must be associated with a category. When you create a survey, the system generates one category, which all the questions belong to.

For simple surveys, one category is usually enough. Consider creating additional categories if you want to accomplish any of the following tasks.

-   Separate groups of questions into collapsible sections by category on the survey questionnaire.
-   Report on category scores, which are calculated based on responses for all questions within each category.

-   **[Create a category in the survey designer](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/servicenow-platform/t_CreateCatInSurveyDesigr.md)**  
A category represents a theme for evaluating a specific element of the survey topic and contains questions pertaining to that theme.
-   **[Create a survey category in a survey](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/servicenow-platform/t_CreateASurveyCategory.md)**  
You can modify an existing survey to add one or more survey categories.

**Parent Topic:**[Survey designer](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/servicenow-platform/c_SurveyDesigner.md)

**Related topics**  


[Survey designer elements]()

[Configure a survey in the survey designer]()

[Create a question in the survey designer]()

[Survey question data types]()

[Create custom metric type]()

[Edit a survey in the survey designer]()

[Configure category weights for a survey]()