---
title: "Which answers lead to a screenout"
description: "The Screenout Reasons block on the Insights page names the routing question and the answer behind each screenout in your test runs."
url: https://www.surveytester.com/academy/en/project-details/screenout-reasons/
language: en
type: how-to
audiences: ["Project Managers", "Survey Authors", "Survey Testers"]
published: 2026-11-06
updated: 2026-11-06
tags: ["screenout", "insights", "routing question", "filter question", "test runs", "client report"]
---

# Which answers lead to a screenout

_Project Details · SurveyTester Academy_

Clients often ask a simple question about a screener: which answers screen a respondent out? The **Screenout
Reasons** block on the **Insights** page answers it from your test runs. It lists the routing questions that
ended test runs with the outcome Screenout, each with the answer responsible.

## Why this is hard without SurveyTester

A screenout rarely happens on the question that caused it. Q3 can decide the outcome while the respondent still
sees Q4 to Q6 before landing on the end page. Looking at the last answers of a screened-out interview therefore
points at the wrong question, and going through the survey script for every path takes time. Counting by hand
also breaks down once a project has hundreds of test runs in several languages.

## How it works

SurveyTester already knows which questions change the survey flow: the
[routing questions](https://www.surveytester.com/academy/en/pages-and-routing/routing-questions), also called filter questions. The block combines
them with the outcome of each test run:

1. It reads every finished test run with the outcome **Screenout**, from bots and from manual testers. Repeated
   test runs count as well.
2. It finds the page the test run ended on.
3. Going backward from the end, it picks the nearest routing question that decides on that end page, and takes
   the answer the test run really gave. A routing question on the very last answered page counts as well when
   the survey ended right there.

Questions that are no routing questions are never named. If Q3 caused a screenout at Q7, the answer to Q6 stays
out, even though it came later.

## Reading the block

Open **Project Details › Insights** and find **Screenout Reasons**. If you do not see it, switch it on in the
block selector at the top of the page.

![Placeholder: screenshot of the Screenout Reasons block with its table](https://www.surveytester.com/academy/_img/project-details/screenout-reasons/en/screenout-reasons-table.png "w=44rem | Each row is one routing question with the answer that leads to Screenout")

Each row is one distinct cause:

| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Routing question | The question responsible, with its page below it |
| Answer that leads to Screenout | The answer given, with its label and value |
| Ended on page | The page or pages the test runs ended on |

The block is a clear statement per answer, not a list of test runs, so there are no counts per row. A repeated
test run confirms a row without inflating it. The line above the table says how many test runs were read and
for how many no routing question is known.

Use the language and market selectors to look at a single audience, for example when a screener differs between
countries.

## When no routing question is known

Some screenouts cannot be explained yet, for example when a typed age screens a respondent out, or when
routing questions were never detected on the project. These test runs appear in the separate section **No
routing question known**, with the answers on their last answered page.

![Placeholder: screenshot of the section No routing question known](https://www.surveytester.com/academy/_img/project-details/screenout-reasons/en/no-routing-question-known.png "w=44rem | Candidates to check, kept apart from the proven causes")

Treat these as candidates to check, not as causes. To turn them into real rows, run **Detect Routing Questions**
on the Pages view, or mark the question as a routing question yourself. A numeric question you mark yourself
is then shown with the number the test run gave.

## Good to know

- Routing questions are detected from up to the latest 500 test runs of the whole project. The language and
  market selectors narrow the test runs read by the block, not the routing questions.
- The outcome Screenout is used as it is stored. It can also come from the expected outcome of a test case, so
  [configure your end pages](https://www.surveytester.com/academy/en/project-details/project-level-survey-end-pages) for reliable results.
- A screenout that depends on two questions together is shown with the nearest routing question only.
- If the survey changed during the project, older test runs may still follow the old routing. Open text, decimal
  and date answers are not shown.