Prepositions of Time in Technical Scheduling and Deadlines
5 exercises — choose the correct time preposition (by, until, for, since, in, at, on) in technical English contexts: deadlines, sprint planning, roadmaps, and incident communication.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
The feature freeze is scheduled ___ Friday at 5 PM UTC.
"On" is used with specific days and dates: "on Friday," "on 15 June," "on Monday morning." "At" is used with clock times: "at 5 PM UTC," "at midnight." The correct full phrase combines both: "on Friday at 5 PM UTC." "In" is used with periods and months: "in June," "in Q3," "in the morning" (but not with specific clock times in this context). "By" indicates a deadline (at the latest), not a scheduled point.
2 / 5
All pull requests must be reviewed and merged ___ the end of the sprint.
"By" indicates a deadline: "by the end of the sprint" means "at the latest, at that point." "Until" describes a duration that continues up to a point: "The feature flag will be enabled until the sprint ends" (it stays enabled throughout). "By" is a DEADLINE — a single point in time by which something must be completed. In project management English: "merged by Friday" = Friday is the deadline. "Until Friday" = it continues up to Friday. These are commonly confused by non-native speakers in sprint planning discussions.
3 / 5
We have been working on the migration ___ three weeks now.
"For" is used with a duration (a length of time): "for three weeks," "for six months," "for two hours." "Since" is used with a point in time (the starting moment): "since January," "since the last deployment," "since Monday." "We have been working for three weeks" = duration. "We have been working since Monday" = starting point. "During" indicates within a period ("during the sprint") but is not used with durations expressed in numbers. "In" expresses completion within a period ("we finished in three weeks") — but with present perfect continuous, "for" is required.
4 / 5
The service has been in maintenance mode ___ last Tuesday's outage.
"Since" + a specific past point in time is used with the present perfect to indicate a state that began then and continues now: "has been in maintenance mode since last Tuesday's outage." "For" would require a duration: "for five days." "During" describes something that happened within a period, not the start point of a continuing state. "After" would use simple past: "was put into maintenance mode after the outage." The present perfect + "since" is the grammatical pattern for "it started then and is still the case."
5 / 5
The team expects to finish the refactoring ___ Q3 and launch the new API ___ the end of the year.
"In Q3" = within that period (using "in" for quarters, months, years). "By the end of the year" = that is the deadline for launch. "In" + time period and "by" + deadline point is a common combination in roadmap discussions: "We aim to complete the migration in Q2 and release by summer." "Until" would create wrong meaning: "launch until the end of the year" would imply the launch continues up to that point. "By" correctly signals the deadline.