Quotas

Steer participant distribution with per-answer and cross-question targets on screening answers.

Quotas let you control how many participants you recruit for specific screening answers. Without quotas, Terac fills participants on a first-come basis. With quotas, recruitment is steered so each target is honored.

Quotas are expressed through cross_quotas — one entry per cell. A cell targets a combination of one or more screening answers:

One condition — a simple per-answer quota (e.g. "at least 30 senior engineers").
Two or more conditions — an interlocked cross-tab, so the sample stays balanced on every dimension at once (e.g. "at least 4 who are in Brazil and at an agency").

Cells reference screening questions by their key, and cells that belong to the same cross-tab share a dimension token so they are summed and balanced together.

Quotas require screening questions. The API returns a BAD_REQUEST error if you provide cross_quotas without screening questions.

Fields

Field	Type	Description
`label`	string	Human label for the cell, e.g. `"Senior engineers"` or `"Brazil × Agency"` (1–200 characters).
`conditions`	array	One condition per dimension (1–26). One condition = a simple per-answer quota; two or more interlock a cross-tab across distinct questions.
`conditions[].screening_question`	string	The `key` of a screening question — one dimension of the cell.
`conditions[].answer`	string	An answer of that question, by its text. For a grid source use `"Row: Column"`.
`conditions[].operator`	string	`eq` (selected that answer, default) or `ne` (did not).
`join`	string	How the conditions combine: `and` (default) or `or`.
`target`	integer	Participant count for this cell (positive).
`quota_type`	string	How the count is enforced: `minimum` (default), `maximum`, or `exact`.
`dimension`	string	Optional. Cells sharing a `dimension` are summed as one interlocked cross-tab. Use one token per cross-tab.

quota_type controls how each cell's target is enforced:

`quota_type`	Meaning
`minimum`	At least this many. A floor — recruitment prioritizes the cell while it is short. This is the default.
`maximum`	At most this many. A cap — applicants who match are screened out once the cell is full.
`exact`	Both a floor and a cap — recruit exactly this many.

The sum of cell targets does not need to equal num_participants. Recruitment stops when both conditions are true: every minimum/exact cell is met, and num_participants is reached. maximum cells never extend recruitment; they only screen out once full.

Simple quota (one condition)

You want 60 participants, with a floor on senior reviewers and a cap on juniors — one cell per answer, each on the same question.

{
  "num_participants": 60,
  "screening_questions": [
    {
      "key": "code_reviews",
      "text": "How many code reviews do you perform per week?",
      "pick": "one",
      "answers": [
        { "text": "5 or more", "qualify_logic": "must_one_of" },
        { "text": "2-4", "qualify_logic": "may" },
        { "text": "0-1", "qualify_logic": "reject" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "cross_quotas": [
    {
      "label": "Senior reviewers",
      "conditions": [
        { "screening_question": "code_reviews", "answer": "5 or more" }
      ],
      "target": 30,
      "quota_type": "minimum"
    },
    {
      "label": "Occasional reviewers",
      "conditions": [{ "screening_question": "code_reviews", "answer": "2-4" }],
      "target": 20,
      "quota_type": "maximum"
    }
  ]
}

Recruitment continues until you have at least 30 who answered "5 or more" and 60 total, while never accepting more than 20 who answered "2-4".

Cross-question quota (two or more conditions)

You want 40 participants, balanced across country and organization type. Each cell interlocks two questions; both cells share a dimension so they form one cross-tab.

{
  "num_participants": 40,
  "screening_questions": [
    {
      "key": "country",
      "text": "Where are you based?",
      "pick": "one",
      "answers": [
        { "text": "Brazil", "qualify_logic": "may" },
        { "text": "Mexico", "qualify_logic": "may" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "key": "org_type",
      "text": "What kind of organization do you work for?",
      "pick": "one",
      "answers": [
        { "text": "Agency", "qualify_logic": "may" },
        { "text": "In-house", "qualify_logic": "may" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "cross_quotas": [
    {
      "label": "Brazil × Agency",
      "dimension": "country_x_org",
      "conditions": [
        { "screening_question": "country", "answer": "Brazil" },
        { "screening_question": "org_type", "answer": "Agency" }
      ],
      "target": 4,
      "quota_type": "minimum"
    },
    {
      "label": "Brazil × In-house",
      "dimension": "country_x_org",
      "conditions": [
        { "screening_question": "country", "answer": "Brazil" },
        { "screening_question": "org_type", "answer": "In-house" }
      ],
      "target": 8,
      "quota_type": "minimum"
    }
  ]
}

Recruitment honors both cells independently: at least 4 participants who are in Brazil and at an agency, and at least 8 who are in Brazil and in-house.

Fields

Simple quota (one condition)

Cross-question quota (two or more conditions)

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