5 exercises — practise expressing a direct cause with "on the back of".
0 / 19 completed
1 / 19
Which sentence correctly uses "on the back of" at the start of a sentence to introduce a triggering event in an incident report?
"On the back of the outage, we changed our on-call escalation policy" correctly uses the fixed phrase with the preposition "of". Option B wrongly uses "from". Option C drops the required article "the". Option D wrongly pluralizes "backs".
2 / 19
Which sentence correctly uses "on the back of" mid-sentence to describe a decision following strong metrics?
"...on the back of encouraging benchmark results" correctly uses "of" to link the phrase to its cause. Option B misspells "of" as "off". Option C uses the wrong preposition "in" instead of "on". Option D wrongly uses "for" instead of "of".
3 / 19
Which sentence correctly places "on the back of" before a noun phrase describing a recent failure that prompted action?
"On the back of three failed deploys this week, we're freezing the release pipeline" correctly follows the fixed phrase with a noun phrase as its object. Option B uses the wrong preposition "with". Option C incorrectly adds a possessive "'s". Option D scrambles the word order.
4 / 19
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "on the back of" (following as a direct result) from "despite" (in spite of) when explaining a funding decision in a design doc?
"On the back of the successful pilot, leadership approved the full rollout" correctly signals the pilot's success as the reason for approval. Option B nonsensically combines two contrasting connectors. Option C misuses "despite" with the fixed phrase, breaking it. Option D wrongly changes "back" to "backing", altering the fixed idiom.
5 / 19
Which sentence correctly uses "on the back of" to open a paragraph explaining a scaling decision following a traffic spike?
"On the back of last week's traffic spike, we've doubled our autoscaling ceiling" correctly attaches "of" before the causal noun phrase. Option B adds a redundant extra possessive. Option C scrambles the internal word order. Option D wrongly uses "at" instead of "of".
6 / 19
The team was experiencing significant latency issues with the new API. On the back of this, the DevOps team immediately implemented a caching layer and optimized database queries.
This question tests understanding of 'on the back of' indicating a direct causal link. The latency issue *caused* the action – reduced user engagement. Options A and B present alternative causes or irrelevant information; option C is the correct consequence.
7 / 19
"On the back of the increased user activity during the holiday season, we're scaling up our database servers to handle the load."
The holiday season's activity *caused* the scaling decision. Option A is incorrect; option B describes an irrelevant metric (satisfaction); and option D represents a negative outcome directly resulting from the increased load.
8 / 19
The team was experiencing significant latency issues with the new API. On the back of this, the DevOps team immediately implemented a caching layer and optimized database queries.
This question tests understanding of 'on the back of' indicating a direct causal link. The latency issue *caused* the action – reduced user engagement. Options A and B present alternative causes or irrelevant information; option C is the correct consequence.
9 / 19
"On the back of the increased user activity during the holiday season, we're scaling up our database servers to handle the load."
The holiday season's activity *caused* the scaling decision. Option A is incorrect; option B describes an irrelevant metric (satisfaction); and option D represents a negative outcome directly resulting from the increased load.
10 / 19
The team was experiencing significant latency issues with the new API. On the back of this, the DevOps team immediately implemented a caching layer and optimized database queries.
This question tests understanding of 'on the back of' indicating a direct causal link. The latency issue *caused* the action – reduced user engagement. Options A and B present alternative causes or irrelevant information; option C is the correct consequence.
11 / 19
"On the back of the increased user activity during the holiday season, we're scaling up our database servers to handle the load."
The holiday season's activity *caused* the scaling decision. Option A is incorrect; option B describes an irrelevant metric (satisfaction); and option D represents a negative outcome directly resulting from the increased load.
12 / 19
Reviewer: 'I'm seeing a lot of timeouts on the API calls. On the back of this, could you investigate the rate limiting configuration?' What is the best way to phrase this feedback to the developer?
This question tests understanding of 'on the back of' indicating causality. Option 1 accurately uses the phrase to connect the observed issue (timeouts) with a suggested action (examining rate limiting). Options 2, 3 and 4 misinterpret or ignore the causal link established by the original statement.
13 / 19
PR Description: 'Due to the recent surge in user registrations, we're implementing a new queuing system. On the back of this initiative, we anticipate improved performance and reduced load on our core services.' Which of the following best captures the meaning?
This question focuses on accurately interpreting 'on the back of' as implying a direct causal relationship. Option 3 correctly states that the surge *caused* the implementation of the system, while the other options present alternative interpretations.
14 / 19
Slack Message (from Lead Developer to Team): 'The recent increase in failed deployments on branch `feature/x` was, on the back of a faulty automated testing script. We're rolling it back and fixing the tests.' What does this message primarily convey?
'On the back of' here establishes a direct causal link. The message clearly states that the faulty test scripts *caused* the deployments to fail. Options 2, 3 and 4 misrepresent this critical connection.
15 / 19
Reviewer: 'We've been seeing a spike in error rates related to the new authentication service. On the back of this, could you examine the recent changes to the authorization middleware?' What's the most appropriate response for the developer?
The phrase "on the back of" indicates a causal relationship – the error rates prompted the investigation. Option 2 correctly acknowledges the problem and requests specific information, aligning with the grammar's purpose. Options 1 and 3 are too passive; option 4 completely misses the crucial link between the observed issue and the need for action.
16 / 19
Code Review Comment: 'The increased CPU usage we're seeing in production is, on the back of the new microservice deployment. Can you profile the service to identify performance bottlenecks?' What is the best way to phrase this comment for a developer?
This scenario tests using "on the back of" to clearly state a cause-and-effect relationship. Option 2 is precise and directly links the CPU issue to the microservice deployment. The other options are too vague or lack the necessary causal connection.
17 / 19
Reviewer: 'We've been experiencing increased database query times. On the back of this, could you investigate potential indexing issues?' Which option best reflects a professional response to this feedback?
The correct answer acknowledges the feedback and proposes a logical next step – investigating indexes. Options A and B are overly enthusiastic and don't address the issue directly; option C dismisses the problem without investigation, while option D is unprofessional and accusatory. This demonstrates understanding of 'on the back of' as a causal result.
18 / 19
Slack Message (from Engineer to Team): 'The increase in error rates with the new microservice was, on the back of a misconfigured network policy. We're rectifying that now.' What is the primary focus of this message?
This message clearly states that the error rates resulted *because* of a misconfigured network policy. The phrase 'on the back of' emphasizes this causality and indicates the corrective action being taken. The other options represent irrelevant details or inappropriate communication styles.
19 / 19
Standup Update: 'We're seeing increased CPU usage on the application server, on the back of this new feature launch. We're monitoring it closely and will scale up if needed.' What does this update primarily communicate?
'On the back of' indicates that the increased CPU usage resulted from the new feature launch. The team's response – monitoring and potential scaling – demonstrates a responsible approach to this causal relationship. The other options misrepresent the situation or suggest inappropriate actions.
What will I practise in ""On The Back Of" for Causal Result — IT Grammar Exercise"?
Practise using "on the back of" to mean "as a result of / following," in incident reports, postmortems, and design docs. 5 exercises for IT professionals.
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 19 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.