5 exercises — keep tenses consistent and choose between past simple, past perfect, and present perfect when writing incident timelines and postmortems.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
A postmortem timeline describes an event that had already happened before the outage was noticed. Which sentence uses the correct tense sequence?
Past perfect for the earlier of two past events: When one past event precedes another, the earlier one takes the past perfect (had filled up) and the later one the past simple (noticed). Option A uses past simple for both, losing the sequence. Option C wrongly uses present perfect have noticed for a finished past action. Option D mixes present perfect has filled into a past narrative. Postmortems rely on this contrast to make timelines unambiguous.
2 / 5
A timeline narrates a sequence of completed actions during the incident. Which sentence keeps tenses consistent?
Consistent past simple for a completed narrative: An incident timeline recounts finished events, so all three verbs should stay in the past simple: crashed, restarted, repeated. Options A and B switch between present and past mid-sentence, which is jarring and unclear. Option D introduces present perfect and present simple, breaking the narrative thread. Tense consistency is one of the most common things reviewers flag in postmortem drafts.
3 / 5
A postmortem states a general fact about the system that is still true today. Which tense is appropriate?
Present simple for enduring facts: Even within a past-tense narrative, statements that remain permanently true use the present simple: The cache layer uses an LRU policy. The other options place this still-current fact in the past, wrongly implying the policy no longer applies. A useful rule for postmortems: narrate events in the past, but describe how the system still works in the present.
4 / 5
A postmortem reports what monitoring showed at a specific past moment. Which sentence is correct?
Past simple for events at a stated past time: With a specific past timestamp (at 14:02), both verbs take the past simple: spiked and stayed. Options A and B switch tense within the sentence. Option D overuses the past perfect — had spiked is only needed when signalling that an event came before another past event, which is not the case here since this is the main timeline event itself.
5 / 5
In the "remediation" section, you describe an action already completed whose effect is still relevant now. Which tense fits best?
Present perfect for completed actions with present relevance: Remediation items are finished actions whose results matter now, so the present perfect is ideal: We have added an eviction policy. Option A (present simple) reads like a routine habit, not a completed fix. Option C (past perfect) wrongly implies the action preceded some other past event. Option D (past continuous) describes an interrupted ongoing action rather than a completed remediation.