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4 of 6Next: The respondent experience
1

Create your study

In Qualtrics, exactly as you normally would.
  1. Build your study as usual. Your questions stay exactly where they are.
  2. The gate is added in the Survey Flow, not on a page, so nothing about your instrument changes.

You now have: a normal Qualtrics study.

2

Create a verification and paste your Qualtrics link

In the VerifyYou dashboard.
  1. Click New verification and name the study.
  2. Under “Where does your survey live?” pick Qualtrics. That choice is how we know to create one-time codes in a contact-list file, the credential Qualtrics’s own Authenticator understands.
  3. Paste your Qualtrics link and click Create verification.

You now have: your study link (the one you share, your Qualtrics link stays private) and a ready-to-import contact list holding one one-time code per verified respondent.

VerifyYou new verification screen, Qualtrics selected

Dashboard mockup, a simple screen we are finishing now. What powers it, the hosted check and per-person single-use credentials, is live in the product today.

3

Import the codes as a contact list

In Qualtrics’s Contacts (called XM Directory on newer accounts).
  1. Click Create Contact List and import the VerifyYou file as-is.
  2. Each row carries one code in the External Data Reference field. That field is the passcode slot.

You now have: a contact list where each code can authenticate exactly once.

4

Add the gate in Survey Flow

Open your study’s Survey Flow.
  1. Add an Embedded Data element at the very top, with the single field name vy_code and no value. Qualtrics then fills it from each respondent’s link, their documented query-string mechanism: the field should read “Value will be set from Panel or URL.”
  2. Add an Authenticator element beneath it. Authenticate against your imported contact list on External Data Reference, tick Prefill, and point it at vy_code. Leave “Allow authenticating respondents to retake authenticated section” unchecked, which is the default: that is what makes each code one-time.
  3. Drag your survey blocks inside the Authenticator.
  4. After the Authenticator, add a Branch for anyone who falls through without authenticating, ending in its own End of Survey element marked as screened out. Qualtrics records a failed authentication as a complete by default, so this branch is what keeps failed and duplicate visitors out of your data.
Qualtrics’s own Authenticator enforces the gate, and in their own words the Prefill option means a respondent with the right credentials “never even sees the authenticator.”

You now have: a gate that opens itself for verified respondents and routes everyone else to a screen-out.

Qualtrics Survey Flow with Embedded Data element

Qualtrics's own UI: Survey Flow, with an Embedded Data element at the top. 'Value will be set from Panel or URL' is exactly what your code field should say.

Qualtrics Authenticator with Prefill enabled

Qualtrics's own UI: the Authenticator set to External Data Reference with Prefill ticked. 'This will attempt to automatically authenticate the recipient' is Qualtrics's own wording.

5

Share your study link

Paste the study link from step 2 into your panel, your sample provider, or your invite email.

You now have: a fielded study where everyone who reaches your questions came through the check. That’s the whole setup.

License note. Free Qualtrics accounts do not include contact lists, so this flow needs a standard or university license, which is what most institutions provide. If the Authenticator element does not appear in your Survey Flow options, your Qualtrics brand administrator can enable it.

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What happens next

What your respondent seesThe scan, the pass, the block, and the return, on real product screens.The same mechanism, any platformAlchemer and Qualtrics today; the pattern fits anywhere.