> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://greatquestion.co/support/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Candidates 101

> Understand what candidates are in Great Question, how to find and add them, and how their profiles work.

Candidates are the people you invite to take part in your research. Every person you've ever added, imported, or recruited lives in your candidate database, and each one has a profile that shows their details, their history, and their activity across every study they've touched.

This guide covers the essentials: what a candidate profile holds, how to find and add candidates, how opt-out and deletion work, and how attributes and segments help you recruit the right people.

## What's in a candidate profile

Open any candidate to see everything Great Question knows about them, organized into sections:

* **About** — the candidate's core details and custom attributes.
* **Activity** — a timeline of what's happened with this candidate.
* **Consent** — consent records and contact preferences.
* **Interviews** — sessions they've taken part in.
* **Screener Q\&A** — how they answered your screening questions.
* **Studies** — every study they've been shortlisted for or joined.
* **Assets** — files and recordings tied to the candidate.
* **Highlights** — clips created from their sessions.
* **Settings** — profile-level controls.

## Finding candidates

From the [**Candidates**](https://greatquestion.co/candidates) page you can locate people three ways:

* Use the **search bar** to look someone up by name or email.
* Apply **filters** to narrow the list by attribute, tag, or other criteria.
* Select a saved [**segment**](https://greatquestion.co/candidate_segments) to instantly apply a reusable set of filters.

<Tip>
  Segments save filter combinations you use often, so you don't rebuild the same audience every time. See [Candidate Segments](/support/support/candidates/participant-segments) for details.
</Tip>

## Adding candidates

Click **Add Candidates** to see the ways you can grow your candidate database:

* **Add manually** — enter a single candidate's details by hand.
* **Invite via link** — share a link that adds anyone who signs up.
* **Import from CSV** — bulk upload people from a spreadsheet. See [Importing Candidates](/support/support/candidates/importing-candidates).
* **Import from an integration** — sync candidates from a connected system, if your account has one enabled.
* **Recruit external candidates** — start a study sourced from an external panel like User Interviews or Respondent.

To pull people you already have into a study, use **Shortlist** from the candidate list or a candidate's profile instead, that's a separate action from adding new people to your database.

## Opt-in, opt-out, and deletion

Candidates control whether they hear from you. A candidate can opt out of a single study, or opt out of all future research across your account. When someone opts out account-wide, they won't receive invitations to any of your studies, but their record and history are preserved.

<Note>
  Respecting opt-out is part of keeping your research compliant. Great Question tracks each candidate's contact preferences on their profile under **About**.
</Note>

**Deleting** a candidate is different and more permanent: it removes the candidate along with their recordings and transcripts. Use **Unsubscribe** when you just want to stop contacting someone; use **Delete** only when you actually want their data gone.

## Custom attributes and segments

**Custom attributes** let you store any data you want about a candidate, a plan type, a role, a signup date, and so on. Attributes support several field types: text, number, URL, datetime, boolean, multiple choice (a predefined list of options), and free text. You can mark an attribute as **PII** (personally identifiable information) or **Health Information** so it's handled appropriately for compliance.

**Segments** turn a set of filters into a saved, reusable audience, either account-wide from the [**Candidate segments**](https://greatquestion.co/candidate_segments) page, or scoped to a specific study. See [Candidate Segments](/support/support/candidates/segments) for the full picture.

## Related articles

* [Candidate Eligibility Settings](/support/support/candidates/candidate-eligibility-settings)
* [Candidate Segments](/support/support/candidates/participant-segments)
* [Importing Candidates](/support/support/candidates/importing-candidates)
* [Participation States](/support/support/candidates/participation-states)

***

**Still need help?** Contact us at [support@greatquestion.co](mailto:support@greatquestion.co) — median response time is 19 minutes during [support hours](https://greatquestion.co/features/about-our-support-team).