Best questions for api developers survey about authentication and authorization

Here are some of the best questions for an API developers survey about authentication and authorization, plus tips to craft a survey that yields actionable insights. If you want to build your own in seconds, you can generate a tailored survey with Specific.

The best open-ended questions for API developers

Open-ended questions dig beyond simple yes/no answers, giving you context and insight that multiple choice just can't capture. They're essential for exploring new issues, gathering stories, or surfacing pain points. Use them when you want honest feedback in API developer surveys focused on authentication and authorization—especially when you want to understand real-world experiences behind security choices and incidents. With nearly 94% of companies experiencing API-related security incidents, getting firsthand developer input is crucial for identifying and fixing potential risks.[1]

1. What is your current process for implementing authentication and authorization in your APIs?

2. Can you describe a challenging incident you faced related to API security, and how you resolved it?

3. Which authentication protocols have you found most reliable, and why?

4. How do you stay informed about new authentication threats or vulnerabilities affecting APIs?

5. What factors most influence your choice of authentication strategy for new projects?

6. Have you integrated multi-factor authentication (MFA) into your APIs? What benefits or drawbacks have you encountered?

7. In what ways do you audit or monitor API access and authorization activities?

8. Are there areas of your API authentication flow that you feel could be improved? Please elaborate.

9. What types of documentation or tooling do you rely on for secure API integration?

10. How do client-side and server-side authentication differ in your workflow, and what trade-offs have you experienced?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for API developers

Single-select multiple-choice questions help when you need structured, easy-to-compare data. They're great for quantifying preferences or identifying clear trends among API developers. Sometimes, it's easier for respondents to quickly select from a few options—kickstarting the survey, or focusing a follow-up for deeper exploration. In fact, 30% of API integration issues stem from improper authentication, authorization, or access control, so quantifying these challenges is invaluable for prioritization.[2]

Question: Which primary authentication method do you use in your APIs?

• OAuth 2.0

• API Keys

• JWT (JSON Web Tokens)

• Other

Question: How often do you perform security audits on your API authentication mechanisms?

• Regularly (at least quarterly)

• Occasionally (less than quarterly)

• Rarely / Only after incidents

• Never

Question: Have you implemented multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your API endpoints?

• Yes, everywhere appropriate

• For some APIs only

• No, not yet

When to followup with "why?" Follow-up with “why” when a respondent picks an option that begs for reasoning—especially if you want to understand motivation or context. For example, if a developer selects “Rarely” for security audits, a natural follow-up is, “Why do you perform audits so infrequently?” This reveals the bottlenecks or trade-offs they face.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always consider adding "Other" when you suspect there are options outside your predefined list. Follow-up questions for "Other" can uncover solutions or challenges you hadn’t anticipated, surfacing hidden best practices and pain points.

NPS: Is it worth asking API developers?

NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a proven way to measure how likely someone is to recommend a practice, tool, or service. For API developers working with authentication and authorization, it can indicate satisfaction or frustration with your platform, or readiness to advocate for your approach. With API security incidents affecting over 40% of organizations in the last year, understanding developer sentiment is more critical than ever.[5] If you want a quick way to measure loyalty, try building an NPS survey automatically for this topic using Specific's NPS survey generator.

The power of follow-up questions

Open-ended and multiple-choice questions only scratch the surface; real understanding happens with smart follow-ups. Check out our dedicated article on AI-powered follow-up questions that probe deeper and clarify ambiguous responses.

Specific’s AI can automatically ask exactly the right follow-up question, in real time, based on context and previous answers. This helps uncover missing details—without ever needing to chase respondents by email or DM. It feels natural and, above all, it saves immense time for researchers. Here’s how things can fall flat without followups:

• API Developer: “We use API keys for authentication.”

• AI follow-up: “What factors led you to choose API keys over OAuth or JWT?”

Without that follow-up, you’d have little context—was it simplicity? Lack of resources? Legacy constraints? With a single, targeted prompt, you gather far richer insights.

How many followups to ask? Usually, two to three thoughtful follow-ups are enough to get context, clarify terms, or dig deeper into the respondent’s experience. Specific lets you customize how many to ask and when to move to the next question, giving you complete control over depth vs. respondent fatigue.

This makes it a conversational survey—rather than a form, it feels like a real conversation, which encourages openness and better responses.

AI survey response analysis is remarkably easy—even when there's tons of unstructured text—thanks to built-in AI tools that aggregate, summarize, and spot hidden trends. If you want to see how it works, check out our AI survey analysis overview.

Automated follow-up questions are a new, game-changing approach—try generating a conversational survey and experience the difference.

Prompting ChatGPT to generate better questions

Want to craft thoughtful questions beyond the obvious? Start with a direct prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for API developers survey about authentication and authorization.

But remember: AI responds even better with more context. For example, specify your goals, audience experience level, or the outcome you want to achieve:

Our team is launching a new API service with sensitive data and needs to understand the authentication and authorization challenges faced by experienced backend developers in fintech. Suggest 10 insightful open-ended questions for this developer audience.

After listing questions, use another prompt to refine the list and find themes:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Once you have categories, double down on what matters most with:

Generate 10 questions for categories “API integration pain points” and “real-world authentication challenges.”

What makes a survey conversational?

A conversational survey mimics a natural chat—a back-and-forth that adapts as the respondent answers. Unlike traditional static forms where you have to design every follow-up in advance, AI-generated surveys, especially the kind you produce with a tool like Specific’s AI survey builder, leverage real-time context for richer feedback.

Here’s a quick comparison table highlighting why AI survey generation is so different from manual forms:

Why use AI for API developer surveys? Text-based AI surveys engage respondents and adapt on the fly, surfacing insights that forms usually miss. For high-context topics like authentication, security, and authorization—which are rapidly evolving and prone to nuanced issues—conversational AI makes it easy to keep pace. Try our guide on creating AI-powered API developer surveys to see just how smooth this makes the feedback process. Specific’s best-in-class experience means every response is richer, less biased, and more honest—while analysis is a breeze for your team.

See this authentication and authorization survey example now

Ready to gather richer API developer insights on authentication and authorization? Try an AI-powered survey now—conversational, adaptive, and packed with discovery that standard forms miss.