6 exercises on verb / noun / adjective forms of essential IT terms. Read the context sentence — then choose the correct word form that fits the blank.
Word families covered in this set
deploy → deployment → deployable → redeploy
reproduce → reproducible → reproduction steps
maintain → maintainability → maintainable
configure → configuration → misconfiguration
autonomous → autonomy → autonomously
validate → validation → validator → valid/invalid
0 / 15 completed
1 / 15
A developer writes: "We need to _____ the API before the next sprint — the current endpoint structure is causing confusion downstream."
Which form of the word DEPLOY fits this blank?
Redeploy is the correct verb here. The sentence needs a verb (the team needs to do something to the API).
The DEPLOY word family: • deploy (v.) — "We deploy new releases every Friday." • redeploy (v.) — deploy again, usually after a fix or change • deployment (n.) — "The deployment took 12 minutes." / "A production deployment" • deployable (adj.) — "The build is deployable — all tests passed." • deployer (n.) — the person or tool that deploys (less common, usually a tool name)
In everyday IT speech: "We triggered a deployment." (noun) "Is this branch deployable?" (adjective — safe to ship?) "Let's redeploy the service to pick up the config change." (verb — do it again) "We need to deploy the hotfix immediately." (verb — basic form)
2 / 15
A QA engineer says: "The bug is _____ — I can reproduce it every time with the same steps."
Which form of the word REPRODUCE fits?
Reproducible is the adjective form: the bug can be reproduced. This is one of the most important words in QA English.
The REPRODUCE word family in QA: • reproduce (v.) — "Can you reproduce this bug?" / "I cannot reproduce the issue." • reproducible (adj.) — "The crash is reproducible in Chrome 120 on macOS." (key for bug reports) • non-reproducible (adj.) — "The issue appears to be non-reproducible — we've logged it and marked as low priority." • reproduction steps (n.) — "Add reproduction steps to the ticket before opening it." • reproducing (gerund/present participle) — "I'm still reproducing the issue."
Bug report template: Every good bug report includes: summary, environment, steps to reproduce, expected result, actual result. The word "reproducible" signals the quality of the report.
3 / 15
The team lead writes in the PR description: "This refactor improves code _____ — modules are now decoupled and can be tested independently."
Which form of the word MAINTAIN fits?
Maintainability (noun) — the quality of being easy to maintain, understand, and modify. It's a key non-functional requirement alongside scalability and reliability.
The MAINTAIN word family: • maintain (v.) — "We maintain three production services." • maintainer (n.) — "She's the maintainer of the open-source repo." (especially in OSS) • maintenance (n.) — "Scheduled maintenance on Sunday 2–4 AM." / "Code maintenance" • maintainable (adj.) — "Is this architecture maintainable long-term?" • maintainability (n.) — "Maintainability is a core engineering value." (abstract quality)
Practical usage: "The codebase is hard to maintain." → "The codebase has poor maintainability." Both mean the same thing — the noun form is more formal and often used in architecture discussions.
4 / 15
A DevOps engineer says in a postmortem: "The incident was caused by a misconfigured _____ — the load balancer was routing all traffic to a single node."
Which form of the word CONFIGURE fits?
Configuration (noun) — the settings, parameters, and values that determine how a system behaves.
The CONFIGURE word family: • configure (v.) — "Configure the nginx proxy before deploying." / "Let me configure the environment variables." • configuration (n.) — "The default configuration worked in staging but not production." (very common in DevOps/infra) • misconfigured (adj.) — "A misconfigured firewall rule blocked all outbound traffic." • misconfiguration (n.) — "The outage was due to a misconfiguration in the Kubernetes manifest." • reconfigure (v.) — "We'll need to reconfigure the cluster after the migration." • config (informal n.) — short for configuration, used constantly: "Check the config file", "config change", "bad config"
IaC context: Configuration management tools (Terraform, Ansible, Chef) generate and version configurations as code.
5 / 15
The architect writes in the RFC: "Moving from a monolith to microservices will improve team _____ — each squad can own, deploy, and scale their service independently."
Which form of the word AUTONOMOUS / AUTONOMY fits?
Autonomy (noun) — the ability to act independently, without needing approval or coordination from others. In microservices architecture, team autonomy is one of the primary benefits.
The AUTONOMY word family: • autonomy (n.) — "Microservices give teams full deployment autonomy." / "We want team autonomy over our release schedule." • autonomous (adj.) — "An autonomous team" / "Autonomous deployment pipeline" • autonomously (adv.) — "Each service deploys autonomously." (less common in writing)
Why this word matters for architects: Conway's Law says system architecture mirrors team communication structure. Designing for team autonomy means designing for loose coupling — if Team A can deploy without coordinating with Team B, the systems are properly decoupled.
Related vocabulary: • ownership — "Team owns the service end-to-end" • decoupled — "Services are decoupled — changes don't cascade" • independent deployability — being able to deploy without coordinating across teams
6 / 15
A backend developer writes in the PR: "I've added input _____ on all public API endpoints — the service now rejects malformed requests with a 400 status."
Which form of the word VALIDATE fits?
Validation (noun) — the process of checking that data is correct, complete, and in the expected format before processing it.
The VALIDATE word family: • validate (v.) — "The middleware validates the request body before it reaches the handler." • validation (n.) — "Input validation", "schema validation", "data validation" — all common collocations • validator (n.) — a function or class that performs validation: "The email validator rejects addresses without a TLD." • valid (adj.) — "The JWT token is still valid." / "Is this a valid UUID?" • invalid (adj.) — "Invalid credentials" / "Invalid request format" • validated (past participle) — "Once the payload is validated, it's queued for processing."
Input validation in security: The OWASP Top 10 includes injection attacks (SQL injection, XSS) — most of which can be prevented with proper input validation. Validating inputs at system boundaries (API layer, forms) is a first line of defense.
7 / 15
Sarah (Lead Developer): 'The build process failed again. It seems we need to trigger the CI/CD pipeline manually—it's consistently failing to pick up the latest code changes.' Which word best fits the blank?
The scenario describes initiating a workflow. 'Trigger' is the correct term when referring to starting a CI/CD pipeline. 'Debug' implies fixing an existing problem; 'execute' is too general; and 'monitor' refers to observing something already running.
8 / 15
Alex (DevOps): 'The database migration script failed again. It's throwing a 'connection refused' error – we need to investigate the network configuration and ensure the PostgreSQL server is reachable.' Which word best describes what Alex needs to do?
Debugging involves systematically investigating a problem to determine its cause. Alex's message clearly indicates a need to find *why* the script isn't connecting, not simply run it again or involve higher-level support. Executing doesn't address the underlying issue; rollback is a reactive step, and escalation might be appropriate later but isn't the immediate focus.
9 / 15
David, a junior developer, wrote: 'We need to deploy the new microservice to staging before the demo. The current deployment process is too complex and prone to errors.' Which form of the word DEPLOY best fits this blank?
This question tests vocabulary around deployment. 'Deploy' is the correct term referring to releasing software to a target environment. The other options relate to different stages of the process – integration involves combining systems, configuration deals with server settings, and validation checks data integrity.
10 / 15
John (Senior Dev): 'The automated tests are failing intermittently. We need to debug the root cause before escalating.' Which word best fits the blank?
'Debug' refers to the process of finding and correcting errors in computer code. While 'resolve', 'fix,' and 'eliminate' are related concepts, 'diagnose' focuses specifically on identifying the *cause* of a malfunction – which is precisely what John needs to do before escalating.
11 / 15
Mark has been experiencing intermittent performance issues with the application. He suspects a problem with the database connection pooling configuration. To investigate effectively, he needs to examine the logs for errors related to connection refused or similar network-related problems. Which term best describes this action?
This scenario focuses on troubleshooting a network issue. 'Debug' is about finding errors in code; 'monitor' tracks metrics; 'validate' checks accuracy. 'Configure' directly addresses adjusting system settings, aligning with Mark's task.
12 / 15
During a stand-up meeting, the development team discusses a recent deployment failure. The lead engineer states, "The issue seems to stem from an incorrect version of the library being deployed. We need to ensure all instances are running the latest stable release." Which term best describes this situation?
The core issue here is the deployment process. 'Deploy' is the act of installing software; 'validate' checks correctness; 'configure' adjusts settings; 'revert' is undoing a change. This question tests understanding of deployment terminology.
13 / 15
"The API endpoint is returning an error code of 400 for requests with invalid JSON payloads. We need to implement robust input validation logic to prevent this." Which word best describes the action being described?
The question describes the process of checking if data meets requirements. 'Validate' specifically refers to verifying input data against defined rules. The other options relate to different aspects of software development (deployment, configuration, monitoring).
14 / 15
"The team is discussing the need for greater independence within each microservice. They want developers to be able to modify and deploy their services without coordinating with other teams." Which term best describes this requirement?
This scenario centers on the concept of self-contained services. 'Autonomize' directly captures this idea of independence and autonomy in development teams. The other options relate to different monitoring/configuration tasks.
15 / 15
"The system administrator is troubleshooting a slow response time from the database server. He's investigating potential bottlenecks and resource constraints. To optimize performance, he needs to examine the queries being executed and their impact on the database." Which term best describes this activity?
This question focuses on the diagnostic process of identifying performance problems. 'Debug' involves investigating the root cause of an issue – in this case, slow queries. 'Monitor' tracks metrics; 'validate' confirms correctness; 'configure' adjusts settings.
What does the "Word Families in IT English" vocabulary exercise cover?
This exercise tests real IT vocabulary related to word families in it english through 15 multiple-choice questions, each built from realistic workplace sentences rather than abstract definitions.
Is this vocabulary exercise free to use?
Yes. Every exercise on CoderSlingo, including this one, is completely free — no account, sign-up, or payment required.
How many questions does this exercise have?
This exercise has 15 questions. Each one shows a real-world sentence or scenario with multiple-choice options and an explanation once you answer.
What happens after I answer a question?
You'll see immediate feedback showing whether your answer was correct, along with a short explanation of why — then a button to move to the next question, and a full results screen at the end.
Can I retry the exercise if I get questions wrong?
Yes. Once you reach the results screen, click "Try again" to reset your answers and go through the exercise from the start as many times as you like.
Do I need to create an account to take this exercise?
No account is needed. Your answers are scored in your browser during the session — nothing is saved to a server, so you can jump straight in.
Is my progress saved if I leave the page?
No — progress within an exercise resets if you navigate away or reload. Each exercise is short enough to complete in a few minutes in one sitting.
Are these vocabulary exercises connected to other topics?
Yes — browse the full vocabulary exercises hub to find related modules covering adjacent IT topics and roles.
How is this different from reading a glossary or blog article?
Exercises like this one are active recall drills — you have to choose the correct term or phrasing yourself, which builds retention faster than passively reading a definition.
Where can I find more vocabulary exercises?
Browse the full Vocabulary exercises hub for hundreds of modules covering Agile, DevOps, security, databases, architecture, and more — organised by IT role and skill.