Here are some of the best questions for an API developers survey about API versioning, plus top tips on creating high-impact surveys. Need to build your own in seconds? Use Specific to generate a survey tailored for API developers instantly.
Best open-ended questions for API developers about API versioning
Open-ended questions open the door to richer feedback. They help us understand the “why” behind versioning choices and uncover challenges or unmet needs. They're best when you want real stories, context, or to surface ideas you hadn’t thought of.
What is your current approach for managing API versions in production?
Can you share a challenge you’ve faced when handling breaking changes across API versions?
How do you communicate version updates to your API consumers?
What factors most influence your decision to deprecate an old API version?
How do you balance backward compatibility with the need for API evolution?
What tools or automation do you use to manage API versioning and why?
Describe your process when updating dependencies for APIs you maintain.
What do you wish API providers did differently when releasing new versions?
How have you handled library or dependency vulnerabilities linked to versioning?
If you could change one thing about your current API versioning workflow, what would it be?
Open-ends like these invite more detailed, actionable answers—giving us insights beyond simple checkboxes. For example, research shows that only 7.9% of client code is typically affected by breaking API changes, but the real stories often reveal pain points that stats can't show. [3]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for API developers about API versioning
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal for quantifying known patterns and starting focused conversations. They're great when you want to quickly classify experiences or opinions, or set up deeper dives with smart follow-up questions. They lower cognitive load for respondents and help set context efficiently.
Question: Which versioning scheme do you mostly use in your APIs?
Semantic Versioning (SemVer: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH)
Date-based versioning
Custom/version in URL path (e.g., v1, v2)
Other
Question: How do you primarily communicate version deprecations to consumers?
Email notifications
API documentation updates
In-product alerts
No formal process
Question: How many API versions do you actively maintain in production?
One (latest only)
Two
Three or more
Other
When to follow up with "why?" After a respondent picks a closed-ended choice, asking “Why did you choose that?” helps you unlock the reasoning behind their selections. For instance, if someone selects “No formal process” for communicating deprecations, a follow-up might reveal resource gaps or priorities that weren’t obvious.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including “Other” allows respondents to surface approaches or pain points you may not have anticipated. Follow-up questions on “Other” choices can surface valuable edge cases or new best practices you can’t capture with fixed options.
NPS question for API developers about API versioning
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a proven format for quantifying sentiment and loyalty. For API developers, NPS can reveal overall satisfaction with your versioning strategy—or frustration with breaking changes and upgrade friction. It’s a fast, benchmarkable metric. If you want to compare how your approach to API versioning is doing relative to others (or track change over time), NPS makes sense. Want an example? Try Specific’s ready-to-launch NPS survey for API versioning now.
The power of follow-up questions
Real insight comes from follow-ups—automated or otherwise. We built Specific to use AI-powered follow-up questions that adapt to what each API developer actually says, probing deeper, clarifying, or pivoting as needed. This dynamic approach produces richer, more context-filled data—no more ambiguous “it depends” answers.
API developer: “We upgrade dependencies rarely, it’s too risky.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share a time when a dependency update caused issues, or more about what makes it risky for your team?”
How many followups to ask? In our experience, asking 2-3 smart follow-up questions uncovers most of the context and intent behind a response. The key is having the flexibility to skip to the next question if you’ve collected the info you need—Specific lets you tune these settings.
This makes it a conversational survey: Participants feel heard and the flow resembles a thoughtful interview instead of a static form.
AI survey response analysis: Don’t worry about the volume of unstructured text—tools like Specific make it easy to analyze responses from API developer surveys with AI, summarizing themes and patterns in seconds.
These AI-driven follow-ups are a game changer—try generating a survey and see how the conversation naturally unfolds.
How to craft prompts for AI to create better API versioning survey questions
If you want to use ChatGPT or another AI to draft your survey, the secret is in the prompt. Here’s a basic starting point:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for API developers survey about API versioning.
But, you’ll always get better results with more context about your audience, your goals, or the challenges you face. Something like:
We are building a survey for enterprise API developers who manage public and private APIs. Our goal is to understand their pain points around versioning, breaking changes, and dependency management. Suggest 10 deep open-ended questions.
Then, get organized:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Now, dive into what matters most. For any category you want more detail:
Generate 10 questions for categories "Dependency Management" and "Breaking Changes".
What is a conversational survey? (Manual vs. AI-generated)
A conversational survey isn’t just a digital form—it’s an adaptive, back-and-forth experience driven by AI. Instead of static, linear questions, the survey asks smart follow-ups, reacts to each answer, and explores real problems—just like a human interviewer. Manual surveys are rigid, but AI-generated surveys make learning about your audience a natural, engaging conversation.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Hand-crafted, time-intensive setup | Survey generated instantly from a prompt |
Static forms; limited branching | Dynamic, auto-generated follow-ups |
Respondent fatigue, less engagement | Feels like a real conversation |
Difficult to analyze open-ends | AI auto-summarizes & categorizes responses |
Why use AI for API developer surveys? Manual survey tools simply aren’t built for the complexity of developer workflows. Our AI survey example adapts, probes, and helps surface modern workflow issues—especially in technical areas like dependency updates or semantic versioning best practices. See why our approach makes feedback smooth for everyone—creators and developers alike.
If you’re new to building AI-driven conversational surveys, check out our step-by-step guide for creating API versioning surveys for extra detail.
See this API versioning survey example now
Try an AI-powered, conversational API versioning survey—gather real insights in minutes, benefit from automated follow-ups, and make your feedback loop smarter than ever.