Here are some of the best questions for an API developers survey about integration ease, plus tips on crafting them for maximum insights. If you want to build an API integration ease survey, Specific can help you generate it in seconds with powerful AI-driven features.
Best open-ended questions for API developers about integration ease
Open-ended questions shine when you want in-depth, honest feedback—not just a score or a checkbox. They let API developers tell you in their own words where the pain points and opportunities are. You get context and nuance, which is priceless for product teams trying to make real improvements. Open-ended questions work best once the respondent is already engaged, or when you’re early in the discovery phase. The qualitative insights you’ll collect form the backbone of any deep dive into integration ease.
The heavy lifting in API integration often comes from the complexity of existing systems, security concerns, and outdated architectures—all issues that only developers can describe in context. According to recent research, over 70% of businesses face challenges integrating new platforms with legacy systems, severely impacting agility and responsiveness. [3]
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced when integrating our API with your systems?
Can you describe a recent experience where our API’s integration process worked well for you? What made it smooth?
Where do you think the documentation for our API needs to improve?
What unexpected obstacles (technical or workflow-related) did you encounter during integration?
In your opinion, how could we simplify the authentication or security steps in our API?
Which tools, SDKs, or libraries did you find most/least helpful during integration?
If you compared integrating our API to others, what stood out as easier or more challenging?
Are there specific data formats or protocols you wish our API supported for easier integration?
How did you resolve any issues you ran into during integration, and was our support effective?
What would your ideal "integration experience" look like when working with APIs like ours?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for API developers about integration ease
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want to quantify the experience or quickly spot trends before digging deeper. Sometimes, developers just want to pick from concise options instead of crafting a long answer—that’s where these questions shine. They help jumpstart the conversation, and they make results easy to analyze at scale.
Question: How would you rate the overall ease of integrating our API into your existing system?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Average
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
Question: Which aspect of our API integration was the most challenging?
Authentication and security setup
Documentation clarity
Data format compatibility
SDK/tooling support
Other
Question: How quickly were you able to authenticate and send your first API request?
Within minutes
Under an hour
A few hours
A day or more
When to follow up with “why?” When a respondent picks an option—especially a negative or extreme one—immediately follow up with “why?” or “Can you elaborate?” This simple nudge transforms a generic reply into an actionable insight. For example, if a developer selects “Very difficult” for integration ease, ask: “What made the integration especially challenging for you?”
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Use "Other" when your predefined options might not cover every situation. By following up (“What specific issue did you run into?”), you often uncover unexpected pain points or edge cases that would go unreported if forced into a box.
Using NPS to capture developer satisfaction with integration
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a simple, industry-standard question: “How likely are you to recommend our API to a colleague?” It’s incredibly effective for measuring overall satisfaction—and learning why developers feel the way they do. In integration ease surveys, it helps benchmark the experience against competitors, especially since integration challenges can quickly sour developer sentiment. A well-timed NPS question lets you segment detractors, follow up for actionable feedback, and identify promoters who might become advocates. See an example or create a tailored NPS survey for API developers instantly.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions turn short or vague replies into detailed, actionable feedback—without the back-and-forth of email or chat. That’s why Specific’s survey builder automatically asks smart follow-ups in real time, responding to each answer like an expert interviewer who’s always present. The advantage? You don’t just collect responses—you dig for the context behind them, surfacing insights that would otherwise remain hidden or ambiguous.
API developer: “The documentation was unclear.”
AI follow-up: “Which section of the documentation did you find most confusing, and what information was missing?”
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 intelligent follow-ups are enough to get nuanced, multi-layered insights. Specific lets you configure this, or skip to the next question as soon as you have what you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: your users feel like they’re chatting naturally, not filling out a static form. They’re more likely to open up, and you benefit from richer feedback.
AI survey response analysis: analyzing open-ended answers used to be painful. Now with AI, sorting and summarizing long-form feedback is effortless—even for technical data. That removes a huge barrier for teams wanting deep insights without an army of analysts.
Automated follow-up questions are still a new concept, but they make a massive difference. It’s worth trying an AI-generated survey to see just how conversational—and insightful—feedback collection can become.
How to use prompts for ChatGPT (or any GPT) to create API developer integration ease questions
Prompts matter: better context means better questions. If you want AI to suggest questions for your API integration survey, start simple:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for API developers survey about integration ease.
But boost the quality by adding more context. For example:
Our product helps B2B SaaS customers integrate payment APIs. We’re targeting mid-level and senior developers working with complex legacy systems, and want to understand pain points in authentication, documentation, and SDK/tooling. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for an API developer survey about integration ease.
Once you have a list, ask AI to help with structure:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then drill deeper by category. For example:
Generate 10 questions focused on "Authentication challenges" and "Legacy system compatibility".
This approach gets you highly relevant, thoughtful questions that actually reflect your priorities and your audience’s reality.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys use AI to turn static forms into dynamic, two-way interviews. Instead of showing a grid of questions, the AI delivers each prompt like a person would—waiting for a reply, then probing deeper based on what was said. That’s why AI survey generation is a clear step up from the “fill and click” manual survey approach.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Build each question and follow-up logic by hand | Describe your goals and let AI create a complete survey |
Static, one-directional questions | Dynamic, context-aware follow-ups in real time |
Limited engagement, higher dropoff | Feels like a chat, making it engaging for developers |
Manual data analysis needed | AI summarizes, clusters, and analyzes responses instantly |
Why use AI for API developer surveys? The API ecosystem changes quickly, and what frustrates developers today is often different from last quarter. AI-powered surveys let you adapt rapidly, ask smarter follow-ups, and make feedback a living conversation—not a static snapshot. Plus, you can use a builder like Specific’s AI survey generator to create sophisticated surveys in minutes, not hours. This level of automation and depth just isn’t available with traditional tools.
Specific’s conversational surveys offer an unmatched user experience—developers feel heard, product and research teams get actionable insight, and the feedback loop tightens for everyone involved.
See this integration ease survey example now
Unlock richer, more actionable insights from your API developers—see how a conversational survey reveals frustrations and bright spots in integration ease. Create your own survey effortlessly and truly understand your developer experience.