5 exercises — idioms you'll hear daily in IT teams: the figurative vocabulary of developers, PMs, and tech leads everywhere.
Quick reference: Tech culture idioms covered here
bandwidth — available time/capacity: "I don't have the bandwidth right now"
bikeshedding — over-discussing trivial details while ignoring important ones
yak shaving — doing many unrelated tasks to accomplish the original one
dogfooding — using your own product internally to test it
boil the ocean — trying to do everything at once when focus is needed
0 / 10 completed
1 / 10
A team lead says in Slack: "I don't have the bandwidth for another project this sprint." What does bandwidth mean here?
Bandwidth is originally a networking term (the rate at which data can be transferred). In IT workplace talk, it is used metaphorically to mean available time, energy, or mental capacity. "I don't have the bandwidth" = "I'm already at full capacity — I can't take on anything more right now." It's extremely common in tech team conversations. Similar expressions: "I'm at capacity", "I'm slammed", "I'm full", "I'm stretched thin." Origin: networking, where bandwidth determines how much data a connection can handle at once.
2 / 10
During a code review, a reviewer writes: "This is a bit of bikeshedding, but the function name could be more descriptive." What is the reviewer communicating?
Bikeshedding (also "bike-shedding") comes from Parkinson's Law of Triviality: the observation that people spend disproportionate time discussing minor, easy-to-understand issues (like what color to paint a bike shed) while ignoring complex, important ones (like the nuclear reactor next door). In IT: "We bikeshedded for 30 minutes over the variable name while the architecture is completely wrong." The reviewer here is flagging their own comment as low-stakes: "I know this is nitpicking, but here's a suggestion." It's often used as self-deprecating acknowledgment: "total bikeshedding on my part, feel free to ignore."
3 / 10
A developer explains his afternoon: "I wanted to upgrade one dependency but ended up yak shaving for three hours." What happened?
Yak shaving describes a chain of prerequisite tasks that leads you further and further from your original goal. The term comes from a Ren & Stimpy episode, popularized in tech by MIT. The classic example: "I wanted to write a test → but first I need to update my local environment → but that requires upgrading Node → which broke my package manager → which needs a dependency fix → …" You end up metaphorically shaving a yak, having completely lost sight of what you started to do. It differs from bikeshedding (wasting time on triviality) — yak shaving is well-intentioned but leads to unproductive detours.
4 / 10
A CTO announces: "We've been dogfooding the new release internally for two weeks — the team reports a significant improvement in load times." What does dogfooding mean?
Dogfooding (or "eating your own dog food") means using your own product or service in your daily work. The phrase comes from a 1980s Alpo dog food TV commercial, and was popularized at Microsoft in a 1988 internal memo. The idea: if your own team uses the product, you'll find bugs and UX problems fast — before customers do. "We dogfood all our tools before launch." Companies that famously dogfooded: Microsoft ran Windows internally before release; Google uses all its products internally. The opposite — building something you'd never use yourself — is sometimes called "astroturfing" or just a sign of a misaligned product strategy.
5 / 10
In a planning meeting, a product manager says: "We can't boil the ocean — let's pick the three highest-impact items and do those well." What is the PM saying?
Boil the ocean = to attempt an impossibly large or comprehensive task when a focused approach would be more practical. "You can't boil the ocean" is a warning against over-scoping. In sprint planning or roadmap discussions: "We don't need to boil the ocean — pick the top 3 improvements and ship them." The idiom is used to push back on scope creep, overly ambitious plans, or anyone who wants to redesign everything at once. Related expressions: "Don't try to eat the elephant in one bite" (same idea), "scope creep" (technical term for goals that keep expanding), "MVP" (Minimum Viable Product — the antidote to boiling the ocean).
6 / 10
Sarah (Senior Developer) posts in Slack: 'Just spent an hour debugging this. It was a ghost in the machine!' What is Sarah most likely referring to?
The idiom 'ghost in the machine' refers to a hidden or elusive problem – often a software bug – that is difficult to identify and fix. It suggests something intangible causing issues, not necessarily a literal ghost! This contrasts with hardware failures (A), API inconsistencies (C) and memory leaks (D).
7 / 10
During a code review, Mark writes in the comments: 'This commit introduces a dependency on lodash. Let's discuss whether this is truly necessary or if we can refactor to avoid it.' What does Mark intend?
'lodash' is often seen as an unnecessary dependency in many projects, representing technical debt and potential complexity. Mark isn't demanding immediate action but raising concerns about the impact of adding this dependency—a common practice in advocating for cleaner code.
8 / 10
David, a junior developer, reports during his daily standup: 'I spent most of the morning trying to get this deployment working. I was just constantly refactoring and tweaking things without really understanding why it wasn't working – it felt like I was spinning my wheels.' What does David mean?
'Spinning your wheels' is an idiom describing unproductive effort—making small adjustments repeatedly without achieving the desired outcome. David's statement indicates he was stuck in a cycle of trial-and-error, highlighting the importance of methodical problem-solving.
9 / 10
Emily (Product Owner) says during a sprint planning meeting: 'Let's not reinvent the wheel – we've already validated this core functionality with users. Let's focus on improving the user onboarding flow.' What does Emily mean?
'Reinventing the wheel' is an idiom meaning to duplicate effort by creating something that already exists. In this context, Emily is advising against developing new features when established solutions are available – a key principle of efficient development and prioritization.
10 / 10
Ben (Engineering Manager) writes in the pull request description: 'We're going to be using this new service for image processing – let's treat it like a beta and get it into the hands of our users as quickly as possible.' What does Ben mean?
Using a service as 'beta' implies that it's still under development and subject to change based on real-world usage. It indicates an early release intended for testing and feedback—a common practice in agile methodologies.
What will I practise in "Tech Culture Idioms — IT English Exercises"?How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 10 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
Is this exercise free to use?
Yes. Every exercise on CoderSlingo, including this one, is free to use with no account, sign-up, or paywall.
Do I need to create an account to do these exercises?
No account is required. Just click an option to answer — your score for this session is tracked automatically in the progress bar above.
What happens if I choose the wrong answer?
You'll immediately see which answer was correct, plus a full explanation covering the idiom's meaning and the tone it carries — mistakes are where most of the learning happens.
Can I retry the exercises if I want a higher score?
Yes — use the "Try again" button on the results screen to reset and go through all the questions again.
Is my progress saved if I close the page?
No. Progress is tracked only for your current visit; reloading or leaving the page resets the counter. This keeps the exercise simple and account-free.
Where can I find more Idioms & Expressions exercises?
Browse the full Idioms & Expressions hub for related drills, or check the "Next up" link below to continue with a connected topic.
How is this different from reading an article on the same topic?
Articles explain idioms and their context in prose; this exercise tests and reinforces that recognition through active recall with immediate feedback — the two work best together.
Who writes these exercises?
Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.