Practice defining and non-defining relative clauses (who, which, that, whose) in technical documentation and code reviews.
0 / 25 completed
1 / 25
Complete the sentence: 'The service _____ handles authentication is down.' Which relative pronoun is correct?
'That' is the standard relative pronoun for defining (restrictive) relative clauses referring to things. 'The service that handles authentication' identifies which specific service — it is a defining clause. 'Which' can also be used in defining clauses but 'that' is preferred in technical writing, especially in American English. 'Who' refers to people, not services or systems. 'Whose' expresses possession. Key rule: defining clauses (no commas) identify the noun and often use 'that' for things.
2 / 25
Complete the sentence: 'The engineer _____ deployed the change hasn't responded.' Which relative pronoun is correct?
'Who' is the relative pronoun for people in both defining and non-defining clauses. 'The engineer who deployed the change' is a defining clause — it identifies which engineer. 'Which' and 'that' refer to things, not people. 'Whose' expresses possession ('the engineer whose PR was merged'). In technical incident reports and on-call escalations, 'the engineer who...' is the standard way to identify the person responsible for an action.
3 / 25
Complete the sentence: 'The config file, _____ was last updated in 2022, may be outdated.' Which relative pronoun is correct?
'Which' is the correct pronoun for non-defining (non-restrictive) relative clauses about things. The commas signal a non-defining clause — the information about 2022 is additional context, not identification. Non-defining clauses always use 'which' (not 'that') for things. 'That' cannot be used in non-defining clauses. 'Who' is for people. 'Whose' is for possession. In documentation, non-defining clauses add parenthetical information: 'The legacy module, which was written in 2018, will be deprecated next quarter.'
4 / 25
Complete the sentence: 'We need a load balancer _____ supports HTTP/2.' Which relative pronoun is correct?
'That' is the preferred relative pronoun for defining clauses referring to things in technical writing. 'A load balancer that supports HTTP/2' defines the requirement — it specifies which type of load balancer is needed. This is the standard pattern in technical requirements documents: 'a system that handles X', 'a service that exposes Y', 'a library that supports Z'. 'For which' is grammatically correct in formal writing ('a load balancer for which HTTP/2 support is available') but is unnecessarily complex for this context.
5 / 25
Complete the sentence: 'The team _____ PR was approved can merge when ready.' Which relative pronoun is correct?
'Whose' expresses possession — 'the team whose PR was approved' = 'the team, their PR was approved'. 'Whose' applies to both people and things in relative clauses. 'Who' would be used as a subject pronoun: 'the team who approved the PR' (different meaning). 'Which' and 'that' cannot express possession. 'Whose' is commonly used in code review comments, PR workflows, and access control documentation: 'the branch whose tests are passing', 'the service whose owner is listed in CODEOWNERS'.
6 / 25
During a code review of the new payment processing microservice, Sarah flagged this comment: 'The service that handles authentication is down.' Which relative pronoun is most appropriate in this context to clearly identify the service's function?
The correct answer is 'that'. 'That' is used to introduce defining relative clauses that specify *what* the service does. While 'which' could technically work, 'that' provides a more concise and standard way to describe the service's primary function within the sentence – it's a common pattern in technical documentation for clarity. Using 'who' or 'what' would be incorrect as those pronouns refer to people or objects respectively, not functions.
7 / 25
In a Slack channel dedicated to the 'Phoenix' project, Mark writes: 'The engineer who deployed the change hasn't responded to our questions. Any updates?' Which relative pronoun correctly introduces the clause describing the engineer?
'Who' is the correct answer here. 'Who' is used to refer to people performing an action (in this case, deploying the change). 'Which' and 'that' are generally used for things or ideas, while 'whose' indicates possession. Using 'who' correctly establishes a clear relationship between the engineer and his action.
8 / 25
You're drafting a PR description for a new feature that adds rate limiting to the API. You write: 'The config file, which was last updated in 2022, may be outdated.' What is the primary purpose of using 'which' in this sentence?
The correct answer is 'to introduce a subordinate clause'. 'Which' is used to connect a non-restrictive relative clause (providing extra detail) to the main clause. The sentence describes an aspect of the config file—that it was last updated—without fundamentally altering the core meaning of the PR description about rate limiting. Options A, C and D are all incorrect as they describe other uses of relative clauses.
9 / 25
During a standup meeting, David says: 'We need a load balancer that supports HTTP/2.' What is the function of 'that' in this sentence?
The correct answer is 'to introduce a defining clause'. 'That' introduces a relative clause that *defines* the load balancer – it specifies the crucial characteristic (HTTP/2 support) required for it. This type of clause provides essential information about the load balancer, clarifying its purpose within the context of the discussion.
10 / 25
During a code review of the new payment processing microservice, Sarah flagged this comment: 'The service that handles authentication is down.' Which relative pronoun is most appropriate in this context to clearly identify the service's function?
The correct answer is 'that'. 'That' is used to introduce defining relative clauses that specify *what* the service does. While 'which' could technically work, 'that' provides a more concise and standard way to describe the service's primary function within the sentence – it's a common pattern in technical documentation for clarity. Using 'who' or 'what' would be incorrect as those pronouns refer to people or objects respectively, not functions.
11 / 25
In a Slack channel dedicated to the 'Phoenix' project, Mark writes: 'The engineer who deployed the change hasn't responded to our questions. Any updates?' Which relative pronoun correctly introduces the clause describing the engineer?
'Who' is the correct answer here. 'Who' is used to refer to people performing an action (in this case, deploying the change). 'Which' and 'that' are generally used for things or ideas, while 'whose' indicates possession. Using 'who' correctly establishes a clear relationship between the engineer and his action.
12 / 25
You're drafting a PR description for a new feature that adds rate limiting to the API. You write: 'The config file, which was last updated in 2022, may be outdated.' What is the primary purpose of using 'which' in this sentence?
The correct answer is 'to introduce a subordinate clause'. 'Which' is used to connect a non-restrictive relative clause (providing extra detail) to the main clause. The sentence describes an aspect of the config file—that it was last updated—without fundamentally altering the core meaning of the PR description about rate limiting. Options A, C and D are all incorrect as they describe other uses of relative clauses.
13 / 25
During a standup meeting, David says: 'We need a load balancer that supports HTTP/2.' What is the function of 'that' in this sentence?
The correct answer is 'to introduce a defining clause'. 'That' introduces a relative clause that *defines* the load balancer – it specifies the crucial characteristic (HTTP/2 support) required for it. This type of clause provides essential information about the load balancer, clarifying its purpose within the context of the discussion.
14 / 25
During a code review of the new payment processing microservice, Sarah flagged this comment: 'The service that handles authentication is down.' Which relative pronoun is most appropriate in this context to clearly identify the service's function?
The correct answer is 'that'. 'That' is used to introduce defining relative clauses that specify *what* the service does. While 'which' could technically work, 'that' provides a more concise and standard way to describe the service's primary function within the sentence – it's a common pattern in technical documentation for clarity. Using 'who' or 'what' would be incorrect as those pronouns refer to people or objects respectively, not functions.
15 / 25
In a Slack channel dedicated to the 'Phoenix' project, Mark writes: 'The engineer who deployed the change hasn't responded to our questions. Any updates?' Which relative pronoun correctly introduces the clause describing the engineer?
'Who' is the correct answer here. 'Who' is used to refer to people performing an action (in this case, deploying the change). 'Which' and 'that' are generally used for things or ideas, while 'whose' indicates possession. Using 'who' correctly establishes a clear relationship between the engineer and his action.
16 / 25
You're drafting a PR description for a new feature that adds rate limiting to the API. You write: 'The config file, which was last updated in 2022, may be outdated.' What is the primary purpose of using 'which' in this sentence?
The correct answer is 'to introduce a subordinate clause'. 'Which' is used to connect a non-restrictive relative clause (providing extra detail) to the main clause. The sentence describes an aspect of the config file—that it was last updated—without fundamentally altering the core meaning of the PR description about rate limiting. Options A, C and D are all incorrect as they describe other uses of relative clauses.
17 / 25
During a standup meeting, David says: 'We need a load balancer that supports HTTP/2.' What is the function of 'that' in this sentence?
The correct answer is 'to introduce a defining clause'. 'That' introduces a relative clause that *defines* the load balancer – it specifies the crucial characteristic (HTTP/2 support) required for it. This type of clause provides essential information about the load balancer, clarifying its purpose within the context of the discussion.
18 / 25
During a code review of the new Kafka consumer microservice, Alex comments: 'The topic that's experiencing high latency is causing delays in our processing pipeline.' Which relative pronoun best clarifies the specific issue being discussed?
'Which' is used here to introduce and specifically identify the Kafka topic that's causing the latency. Using 'although,' 'because,' or 'that' would not provide this precise clarification within the technical context of a code review comment. The key is recognizing 'which' as an appositive relative pronoun.
19 / 25
In a Slack channel discussing the deployment of a new Docker image, Emily writes: 'The container that's failing to start has a missing environment variable.' What is the primary function of 'that' in this sentence?
'That' acts as a relative pronoun here, introducing a defining clause that provides specific details *about* the failing container. It's not suggesting a contrast or indicating possession; it's simply elaborating on the subject of the sentence – the container with the missing variable. This is a classic example of 'that' referring back to an antecedent.
20 / 25
You're reviewing a code commit related to the deployment of a new microservice. The commit message reads: 'The service that's currently running is using an outdated version of the library.' What purpose does 'that' serve in this message?
'That' is used as a relative pronoun to clearly define *which* service is experiencing the problem – the outdated library version. The message's purpose is to pinpoint the scope of the issue for further investigation and resolution; it doesn't introduce other potential problems or suggest actions.
21 / 25
Reviewer John flagged this comment: 'The API endpoint that returns user profiles has a high latency.' Which relative pronoun best clarifies *which* endpoint is experiencing the issue?
'Which' is used to identify a specific thing (the API endpoint) within a group. 'That' could be used, but 'which' provides more precise information about the object being referenced. 'Who' and 'whom' are inappropriate here as they refer to people, not things.
22 / 25
Slack message from DevOps Lead Maria: 'The database connection pool that's consistently running out of connections is a major concern.' What does the relative pronoun 'that' emphasize in this message?
The 'that' clause refers back to 'the database connection pool'. It highlights *what* is causing the issue (running out of connections) rather than offering a general statement about Maria's feelings or the problem itself. The focus is on identifying the specific element under scrutiny.
23 / 25
PR description for a new feature: 'The authentication service, which uses OAuth 2.0, requires client credentials.' What is the primary function of 'which' in this sentence?
'Which' is used as a relative pronoun to add extra information about 'the authentication service'. It clarifies *how* the service performs its function – specifically, by utilizing OAuth 2.0 for authentication. The other options are incorrect because they misinterpret the role of the clause.
24 / 25
Standup update from Backend Engineer Ben: 'We're investigating the microservice that's experiencing intermittent errors.' What grammatical function does 'that' perform in this sentence?
'That' is a relative pronoun. It introduces a relative clause ('that's experiencing intermittent errors') which modifies and provides more detail about the microservice. This clause acts as an adjective describing the microservice.
25 / 25
Code review comment from QA Engineer Chloe: 'The logging service whose logs are being ignored is causing difficulties in debugging.' What does the relative pronoun 'whose' refer to?
'Whose' is a possessive relative pronoun. It indicates that the logging service *owns* or possesses something – in this case, the logs being ignored. The clause clarifies *what* aspect of the logging service is problematic.
What will I practise in "Relative Clauses in Technical Documentation"?
Practice defining and non-defining relative clauses (who, which, that, whose) in technical documentation and code reviews.
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