Based on user ratings, "What You Leave Behind" holds a 9.2/10 and a 9.0/10 on TV.com and an 8.7/10 on IMDb. The episode won the 2000 Best Television Episode SyFy Genre Award. In a poll conducted on the official "Star Trek" website to determine the best episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "Trials and Tribble-ations" won, leaving the staff to ponder why "remarkable episodes" as "The Visitor", "What You Leave Behind", "", and "Far Beyond the Stars" didn't receive the necessary votes to challenge the winner in earlier rounds.