Test Google forms: walk every branch

The owner's test runs with a Google account already signed in, and with answers chosen from memory. A question that opens a new section for only one answer goes untested unless each option is picked. A file upload question asks the person filling it in to sign in to Google, so a visitor without an account stops there. Each one passes your test and fails live.

• In Preview, pick every option of each question that sends people to another section, one pass per option.
• Open the live link in a private window with no Google account signed in, and check the first screen shows a question.
• Find each file upload question and note that it asks the person filling it in to sign in to Google.
• Read the confirmation message after Submit on a phone, and check that it says what happens next.

Your own test runs signed in. Google Forms can ask the person filling it in to sign in for three reasons: a verified email setting, a one-response limit, or a restriction to people in an organization. None of those screens appears to the form's owner, who is already signed in. The owner also tends to pick the answers they expect, so a question that opens a second section for an unusual answer gets no pass at all. A passing test shows the path you took, and nothing more.

The wrong version is one pass in Preview with the answers you expect, then a link to everyone. The right version is one pass per option, one submission from a signed-out window, and a run for each path. Write down the answer you gave for each question, so a second pass can repeat it exactly. The places where they disagree are the places a stranger will get stuck.

A form with branches has more paths than questions. Each multiple choice question that sends people to a different section creates a path per option, and a question on a far branch may be required only when a visitor takes that path. Pick each option in turn in Preview and note where the form goes next. A path you never walk stays untested, and a visitor who gives the unexpected answer meets it first.

Required questions need a check too. Leave every required question empty on one pass, and see which one stops Submit and whether its error is visible on a phone. Then fill in each path to the end and read the confirmation message. A form can reject an empty answer on one path and accept it on another. Write down which option you chose, too.

A test answer should appear in the Responses tab with every field filled, in the order the questions were asked. If a field is missing there, check that question's setting, since the form records only what the question collects. Then check the email notification, if you turned one on, and the message it sends. Delete the test answers afterwards, so your numbers stay honest.

A simulated visitor follows the live form with no Google account, one path at a time. A file upload question stops that visitor at the same sign-in wall a stranger meets, and the run reports the question with a screenshot and any script error recorded there. It does not read your Responses tab or your email, so it cannot confirm that an answer was recorded. Check the recorded answers yourself.

A new section, a changed branch or an upload question added for one campaign can stop people on a path nobody walked. After each edit, walk the new branches in Preview, send one answer signed out, and run the same paths with simulated visitors before you post it again.