Prepositions of Time and Duration in Technical English
5 exercises — master for, since, during, and by in technical contexts: deadlines, incident timelines, TTLs, and status updates.
Time preposition guide
for + duration: "for 24 hours", "for two sprints"
since + point in time: "since March", "since the last release"
by + deadline: "by Friday", "by end of Q2"
during + named event: "during the deployment", "during the outage"
0 / 20 completed
1 / 20
A project manager writes in a status update: "The team has been working on the migration ___ March." Which preposition is correct?
Since is correct. Use since with a point in time (a specific moment when the action started): a date, month, year, or named event. "Since March" = starting from March up to now. This requires the present perfect or present perfect continuous: "has been working since March." Contrast with for: use for with a duration (a period of time): "for three months", "for two sprints", "for six hours." Memory rule: since + point, for + period. Common tech errors: "We have this bug for weeks" → should be "for weeks" with present perfect; "Since a long time" → incorrect, use "for a long time."
2 / 20
A release note states: "All legacy endpoints must be updated ___ the end of Q2." Which preposition signals a deadline?
By is correct for deadlines. By + time expression means "no later than" — the action must be completed at or before that point: "by the end of Q2", "by Friday 5pm", "by the next sprint." This is the standard deadline preposition in project management English: "The feature must be shipped by release day." · "All tests must pass by merge time." Contrast with until: until means the action continues up to that point, not that it must complete by it: "The server will be in maintenance until midnight" (continuous until midnight). Never use since or during for deadlines. For expresses duration, not a deadline point.
3 / 20
A DevOps engineer writes in an incident report: "The service was degraded ___ the database failover window." Which preposition is correct?
During is correct. Use during when something happens at some point within or throughout a named period or event: "during the failover window", "during the deployment", "during the maintenance period."During answers the question "when?" by referring to a named interval. Contrast with for, which gives a measured duration: "for 45 minutes". You can often use both about the same event: "The service was degraded during the migration" (named event) vs "The service was degraded for 20 minutes" (measured time). In incident reports, during is used with named events (failover, deployment, outage window) while for is used with measured durations (for 3 hours, for 2 minutes).
4 / 20
A Jira ticket description says: "The API rate limit has been misconfigured ___ version 2.3 was released." Which preposition is correct?
Since is correct. Since + a named event or point in time marks the starting point of an ongoing situation that continues to the present: "since version 2.3 was released" = from that release up to now. This requires present perfect: "has been misconfigured since." Tech examples: "This bug has existed since the refactor." · "Performance has degraded since the last deployment." · "We've had this issue since the database upgrade." Common trap: mixing since and for. Ask yourself: is it a point (→ since) or a period (→ for)? "Since the release" (point — the moment of release). "For three releases" (period — across multiple releases).
5 / 20
A technical spec states: "The cache TTL must be set ___ 24 hours to meet compliance requirements." Which preposition is correct?
For is correct. For + duration expresses how long something lasts or should last: "for 24 hours", "for 7 days", "for the duration of the session." In technical specifications, for is used to set retention periods, timeouts, TTLs, and SLA windows: "Data must be retained for 90 days." · "Tokens expire for 1 hour." · "The connection timeout is set for 30 seconds." Contrast: "The cache has been set since deployment" (since = starting point). "The cache must be updated by midnight" (by = deadline). "The cache was cleared during maintenance" (during = within a named event). Summary: for = measured duration, since = starting point, by = deadline, during = within a named period.
6 / 20
A Slack message from a senior developer reads: 'We're currently investigating the issue. It started occurring around 14:00 UTC and seems to be persisting throughout the morning.' Which preposition best completes this sentence?
The phrase 'throughout the morning' indicates a duration of time. 'Until' is the correct preposition to express an action continuing over a period. Options 'during,' 'for,' and 'within' don't accurately represent this continuous timeframe; they imply specific points in time, not a sustained duration.
7 / 20
A code review comment reads: 'This function should handle errors gracefully. Implement a retry mechanism with a maximum attempt count of 3, waiting 2 seconds between each attempt over the next hour.' Which preposition is most appropriate here?
The phrase 'above the next hour' indicates a duration of time with an upper limit. 'Within' would suggest a timeframe contained entirely by the hour, which doesn't fit the context of attempting something repeatedly. 'Under' and 'across' are incorrect prepositions to use in this scenario relating to timing.
8 / 20
A PR description for a new feature states: 'This change introduces support for asynchronous processing. The queue will be populated from the API endpoint and processed over the next 24 hours.' Which preposition is most suitable in both instances?
The prepositions 'from' and 'around' are frequently used to describe the origin or timeframe of a process. 'Through' implies passing *via* something – not appropriate here. 'On' suggests a specific point in time, while 'at' denotes location; 'around' is also less precise than 'around'. 'Around' provides the best sense of duration and approximation.
9 / 20
A technical document explains: 'The system automatically rolls back failed transactions after a timeout period of 30 seconds. The rollback process is triggered during the database recovery.' Which preposition correctly describes these relationships?
'Between' is the best choice because it indicates a timeframe or interval. The rollback happens 'after' a specific duration and 'during' a particular event. Options 'despite,' 'before,' and 'since' do not logically connect the timing of these two actions.
10 / 20
A standup update says: 'I've been working on optimizing the data pipeline. I expect to have initial results by Friday afternoon and complete the testing over the course of next week.' Which preposition best completes both sentences?
'In' is used to denote a specific time or period by which something should be completed. 'For the course of' accurately describes the duration of an activity. Using 'at' would imply a precise point in time, and 'on' suggests a particular day without indicating a length of time.
11 / 20
A Slack message from a senior developer reads: 'We're currently investigating the issue. It started occurring around 14:00 UTC and seems to be persisting throughout the morning.' Which preposition best completes this sentence?
The phrase 'throughout the morning' indicates a duration of time. 'Until' is the correct preposition to express an action continuing over a period. Options 'during,' 'for,' and 'within' don't accurately represent this continuous timeframe; they imply specific points in time, not a sustained duration.
12 / 20
A code review comment reads: 'This function should handle errors gracefully. Implement a retry mechanism with a maximum attempt count of 3, waiting 2 seconds between each attempt over the next hour.' Which preposition is most appropriate here?
The phrase 'above the next hour' indicates a duration of time with an upper limit. 'Within' would suggest a timeframe contained entirely by the hour, which doesn't fit the context of attempting something repeatedly. 'Under' and 'across' are incorrect prepositions to use in this scenario relating to timing.
13 / 20
A PR description for a new feature states: 'This change introduces support for asynchronous processing. The queue will be populated from the API endpoint and processed over the next 24 hours.' Which preposition is most suitable in both instances?
The prepositions 'from' and 'around' are frequently used to describe the origin or timeframe of a process. 'Through' implies passing *via* something – not appropriate here. 'On' suggests a specific point in time, while 'at' denotes location; 'around' is also less precise than 'around'. 'Around' provides the best sense of duration and approximation.
14 / 20
A technical document explains: 'The system automatically rolls back failed transactions after a timeout period of 30 seconds. The rollback process is triggered during the database recovery.' Which preposition correctly describes these relationships?
'Between' is the best choice because it indicates a timeframe or interval. The rollback happens 'after' a specific duration and 'during' a particular event. Options 'despite,' 'before,' and 'since' do not logically connect the timing of these two actions.
15 / 20
A standup update says: 'I've been working on optimizing the data pipeline. I expect to have initial results by Friday afternoon and complete the testing over the course of next week.' Which preposition best completes both sentences?
'In' is used to denote a specific time or period by which something should be completed. 'For the course of' accurately describes the duration of an activity. Using 'at' would imply a precise point in time, and 'on' suggests a particular day without indicating a length of time.
16 / 20
A Slack message from a senior developer reads: 'We're currently investigating the issue. It started occurring around 14:00 UTC and seems to be persisting throughout the morning.' Which preposition best completes this sentence?
The phrase 'throughout the morning' indicates a duration of time. 'Until' is the correct preposition to express an action continuing over a period. Options 'during,' 'for,' and 'within' don't accurately represent this continuous timeframe; they imply specific points in time, not a sustained duration.
17 / 20
A code review comment reads: 'This function should handle errors gracefully. Implement a retry mechanism with a maximum attempt count of 3, waiting 2 seconds between each attempt over the next hour.' Which preposition is most appropriate here?
The phrase 'above the next hour' indicates a duration of time with an upper limit. 'Within' would suggest a timeframe contained entirely by the hour, which doesn't fit the context of attempting something repeatedly. 'Under' and 'across' are incorrect prepositions to use in this scenario relating to timing.
18 / 20
A PR description for a new feature states: 'This change introduces support for asynchronous processing. The queue will be populated from the API endpoint and processed over the next 24 hours.' Which preposition is most suitable in both instances?
The prepositions 'from' and 'around' are frequently used to describe the origin or timeframe of a process. 'Through' implies passing *via* something – not appropriate here. 'On' suggests a specific point in time, while 'at' denotes location; 'around' is also less precise than 'around'. 'Around' provides the best sense of duration and approximation.
19 / 20
A technical document explains: 'The system automatically rolls back failed transactions after a timeout period of 30 seconds. The rollback process is triggered during the database recovery.' Which preposition correctly describes these relationships?
'Between' is the best choice because it indicates a timeframe or interval. The rollback happens 'after' a specific duration and 'during' a particular event. Options 'despite,' 'before,' and 'since' do not logically connect the timing of these two actions.
20 / 20
A standup update says: 'I've been working on optimizing the data pipeline. I expect to have initial results by Friday afternoon and complete the testing over the course of next week.' Which preposition best completes both sentences?
'In' is used to denote a specific time or period by which something should be completed. 'For the course of' accurately describes the duration of an activity. Using 'at' would imply a precise point in time, and 'on' suggests a particular day without indicating a length of time.
What will I practise in "Prepositions of Time and Duration in Technical English | Coders Lingo"?
Practise for, since, during, and by in technical deadlines, incident reports, and specifications. 5 grammar exercises.
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