How conditional logic works on application forms

Show, hide or require a question, a repeatable section or a whole page depending on how a candidate answered an earlier question.

Conditional logic lets an application form change as the candidate fills it in. A question about previous names can stay out of sight until someone says they have used another name. A page of questions for driving roles can be skipped by everyone else. You set the rule on the question, section or page you want to control, and it points back at an earlier question whose answer decides what happens.

Who can set it up

System Admin and HR users can add and change conditions. Members, agencies, hiring managers and interviewers cannot edit application forms. You can work in a template (Settings, then Application Form Templates) or on a job's application form once the job has been approved. The controls are the same in both places. See Building an application form for the basics of adding questions and pages.

Show a question only when an earlier answer matches

Open the form and find the question you want to control, the one that should appear or disappear.
Select the arrow that opens its details (Edit field details).
Tick Show this field conditionally.
In the first list (labelled Show when field), choose the earlier question that decides it.
In Operator, choose how to compare the answer.
Enter or choose the value to match.
Select Save.

For example, to show Previous names only to people who answered Yes to Have you used any other names?, open the details of Previous names, choose Have you used any other names? as the trigger, leave the operator as equals and pick Yes.

When you tick the box, Recruit fills in the first earlier question in the list, the operator equals and a blank value. Change all three to what you mean before saving. Unticking the box removes the rule.

equals and does not equal compare the whole answer. For a dropdown or a Yes/No question, this is the usual choice.
contains and does not contain look for the value anywhere inside the answer. Use them for free text, or for a Multi-select question where the candidate can tick several options.
is empty is true when the trigger question has not been answered. is not empty is true once it has. Neither needs a value, so the value box disappears.

Comparisons are exact and treat capital letters as different, so yes does not equal Yes. If the trigger is a Dropdown or Multi-select question, you pick the value from its list of options, which avoids typing mistakes. For any other type you type the value.

A few types behave in particular ways. A checkbox reads true when ticked and false when not, and an untouched checkbox counts as false from the start. A Multi-select answer is treated as its ticked options joined by commas, so equals only matches when the candidate ticked exactly that one option. Use contains to match one option among several.

Require a question only when an earlier answer matches

Requiring a question is separate from showing it. To make a question mandatory only in some cases:

Open the question's details.
Make sure the ordinary Required switch is off. While it is on, Require this field conditionally is locked, and its tooltip says that required fields cannot be shown conditionally.
Tick Require this field conditionally and build the rule in the same way as above.
Select Save.

The question stays optional unless the rule is met, and then the candidate must answer it. Once a conditional requirement is on, the Required switch is locked the other way round, with the message that the field is required by a condition. Clear the condition first if you want to set Required by hand.

You can use both kinds of rule on one question. A question that is hidden is never required, whatever the requirement rule says.

The standard questions that every application needs, such as first name and email address, are always required. They cannot be hidden conditionally, and the option is unavailable with a tooltip saying so.

Combine several rules

Select Add condition to add another rule to the same question. Each rule has its own trigger question, operator and value. Once there are two or more, a list labelled Match conditions appears:

All conditions (AND): every rule must be true.
Any condition (OR): one true rule is enough.

An example of AND: show Licence number only when Do you drive for work? equals Yes and Country equals United Kingdom. An example of OR: show Please explain when Have you ever been dismissed? equals Yes or Have you left a job by agreement? equals Yes.

Select the X beside a rule to remove it. Removing the last rule turns the condition off. All rules on a question share one setting. You cannot mix AND and OR within a single condition.

Which questions can be a trigger

Only questions above the one you are editing. The list follows the order a candidate meets the questions: first by page, then by position on the page. Every question on earlier pages is available, plus the questions above it on its own page. Questions below it, or on later pages, are not offered.

The first question on the first page has nothing above it, so both condition switches are unavailable and a note tells you to move the question below another one. The same applies to a question you drag to the top.

A question inside a repeatable section can use questions in that same section, or questions outside any section, as triggers. It cannot use a question from a different repeatable section. Inside a section the rule is checked entry by entry, so a question can show in the first entry and stay hidden in the second. See Repeatable sections: employment history, education and references.

Show a whole repeatable section only when an earlier answer matches

A repeatable section, such as employment history, can be shown or hidden as a whole instead of question by question.

Find the section's Group: heading on the form and select the cog beside it.
Tick Only show this section if.
Choose the trigger question, then the operator and value. Only questions above the section are offered.
Select Save on the form.

Recruit writes the same rule onto every question in the section. If the questions already carry different rules, a note warns that setting a section condition replaces them. A question in the section that is required in every entry, such as Employer, cannot be given a rule of its own. Its question-level condition is unavailable and tells you to set a condition on the whole section instead.

Show a whole page only when an earlier answer matches

A page rule hides every question on the page at once.

Point at the page's tab above the form. A small cog appears on it.
Select it (Show When settings for page).
Tick Only show this page if in the box titled Show this page when....
Choose the trigger question, operator and value, and add more rules if you need them.
Select Save on the form.

A page can only depend on questions on earlier pages. The first page has nothing before it, so it is always shown. A page with a rule keeps its cog visible so you can see which pages are conditional. If the trigger question is later deleted, or moved to the same page or a later one, the cog turns red and the box warns that the condition refers to a question that no longer exists on an earlier page. Update or remove the rule.

Pages have no require option. Questions on a shown page keep their own required settings. Questions on a hidden page never stop the candidate from continuing or submitting. Where a question has a rule of its own as well, both must pass for it to appear.

What the candidate sees

The form reacts as the candidate answers. A question appears or disappears as soon as its trigger changes. A hidden page is skipped: it does not appear in the page steps or on the final review page, and the candidate moves straight to the next visible one. Pages hidden by a page rule are skipped in the same way when a candidate finishes an application later from the emailed link.

Shown questions that are required must be answered before the candidate can continue. Rules can be chained. If question B appears when A is Yes, and question C appears when B is Yes, then C only shows when both hold. A hidden question cannot trigger anything, so a rule is never satisfied by an answer the candidate can no longer see.

What happens to answers on hidden questions

If a candidate answers a question and then changes an earlier answer so that the question hides, the answer stays in place while they carry on. Change the earlier answer back and it returns as they left it.

When the application is submitted, answers on hidden questions and hidden pages are left out. They are not saved with the application, they are ignored when Recruit checks qualifying questions for automatic disqualification, and they are not counted when Recruit checks for gaps in employment history.

Editing a form that already has rules

Deleting a question that other questions or pages depend on brings up Remove this field?. It names the questions whose conditions will be removed too, and any page whose rule uses the question, shown as the page name followed by (page condition). Those page rules are cleared as well. Confirm with Remove field to go ahead. Deleting a repeatable section works the same way and lists the conditions that will go with it.

If you move a question so that its trigger no longer comes before it, it shows This field's condition refers to a field that doesn't come before it. Move the source field above it. The form cannot be saved until you move the trigger back above it or remove the rule. A message at the top of the form names the questions to fix.

Removing a page moves protected questions to a neighbouring page and deletes the rest. Rules on other questions and pages that pointed at deleted questions are removed, and the confirmation lists them.

Rules are stored with the form, so they travel with a template when you apply it to a job and when you save a job's form as a template.