computer science

Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Qualtrics rather than just read about it. In short: Qualtrics, LLC is an American experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Provo, Utah, in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M.

Key takeaways

Qualtrics belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Qualtrics to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Qualtrics from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Qualtrics, LLC is an American experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Provo, Utah, in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill. Qualtrics offers a cloud-based subscription software platform for experience management, which it launched in March 2017. Qualtrics software is used widely in academia to conduct survey research; however, in 2012 the company began to pivot towards serving enterprise customers. As of 2025, the company is focused on data collection and the use of agentic AI. On November 11, 2018, it was announced that Qualtrics would be acquired by SAP for US$8 billion. The acquisition was completed on January 23, 2019. On January 28, 2021, Qualtrics went public and began trading on the Nasdaq. In March 2023, an investor group led by the private equity firm Silver Lake agreed to take Qualtrics private. On June 28, 2023, it was announced that Silver Lake and its co-investors, together with CPP Investments, acquired 100% of the outstanding shares in Qualtrics.

History Qualtrics was founded by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill in Provo, Utah in 2002.

Funding and valuation In 2012, the company received a $70 million Series A investment from Sequoia Capital and Accel, It was the largest joint investment to date by these two firms. In September 2014, the two firms returned to Series B funding, led by Insight Partners worth $150 million, a record for a Utah-based company, and valuing the company at $1 billion.

Filing for IPO On October 19, 2018, Qualtrics filed its S-1 registration statement with the intention of raising gross proceeds of $200 million through an initial public offering (IPO) of its Class B shares. At the time, the company listed 9,000 global customers. The company was meant to be listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker "XM" in reference to their flagship experience management product, the Qualtrics XM Platform. Plans for the IPO were scrapped when it was announced in November 2018 that Qualtrics would be acquired by SAP (NYSE: SAP).

Acquisitions In May 2016, Qualtrics acquired statistical analysis startup Statwing for an undisclosed sum. Statwing was a San Francisco-based company that created point-and-click software for advanced statistical analysis. In April 2018, the firm acquired Delighted for an undisclosed sum. Delighted had more than 1,500 customers at the time of acquisition. In October 2021, the firm acquired Clarabridge in an all-stock deal for $1.125 billion. Clarabridge was a Virginia-based company that created software for omnichannel conversational analytics. In October 2025, Qualtrics announced the acquisition of Indiana-based healthcare-focused technology company, Press Ganey, for $6.75 billion, including debt, making it the company's largest acquisition yet.

Acquisition by SAP SE In November 2018, SAP announced its intent to acquire Qualtrics. SAP acquired all outstanding shares of Qualtrics for US$8 billion in an all cash deal. SAP secured €7 billion in financing. At the time it was announced, the Qualtrics acquisition was SAP's second-biggest purchase ever, behind the $8.3 billion acquisition of travel and expense management firm Concur in 2014. The acquisition was formally closed January 23, 2019.

Initial public offering (IPO) On 26 July 2020, SAP announced its intent to take Qualtrics public through an IPO in the United States. According to SAP, the decision to go public was made due to Qualtrics's performance since the acquisition, with 2019 cloud growth in excess of 40 percent. SAP's stated intent was to remain the majority shareholder. While acknowledging that the spinoff made financial sense due to market conditions, Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insight & Strategy, felt there was also a corporate culture clash. In his view, SAP couldn't find a way to co-exist with the younger, more nimble Qualtrics. On January 28, 2021, Qualtrics began trading on the Nasdaq at $41.85 per share. In January 2021, Brad Anderson, a high level executive of Microsoft, joined Qualtrics as president of products and services. In May 2022, Qualtrics announced they would go live on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure in London in the second half of 2022. Qualtrics customers would be able to access Qualtrics XM/OS platform locally via AWS London region. Furthermore, Qualtrics announced that they would be opening a London office and customer experience centre.

Divestment by SAP SE In March 2023, a group of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake, CPP Investment Board, and co-founder Ryan Smith agreed to buy Qualtrics from SAP in an all-cash deal worth $12.5 billion.

Silver Lake acquisition Silver Lake first invested more than $500 million in Qualtrics during the company's IPO in 2021. In March 2023, Silver Lake agreed to take Qualtrics private. In June 2023, the Qualtrics acquisition by Silver Lake was completed. At the time of the close, the Qualtrics deal was the single largest investment in Silver Lake's near quarter-century history. In connection with the close, Accel, a global venture capital firm, as well as BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors; and DFO Management, the family investment office of Michael Dell, joined Silver Lake in investing in Qualtrics. Accel, which was one of Qualtrics's earliest investors, invested $500 million. BDT & MSD Partners and DFO Management each made a co-investment of $250 million, for an aggregate commitment of $500 million.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Qualtrics

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Qualtrics claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Qualtrics before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Qualtrics ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Qualtrics

In research: Qualtrics appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Qualtrics in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Qualtrics is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2002 establishments in Utah, 2019 mergers and acquisitions, 2021 initial public offerings, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Qualtrics outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Qualtrics in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Qualtrics means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Qualtrics out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Qualtrics in simple terms?

Qualtrics, LLC is an American experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Provo, Utah, in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M.

Why does Qualtrics matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Qualtrics?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Qualtrics.