For many skills, this chapter provides a list of 5 sample task examples: Untrained, Trained, Expert, Master, and Legendary. Do these words refer to task difficulty or to minimum proficiency rank? For instance, the Swim action Sample Tasks state "Legendary maelstrom, waterfall." Does this mean I can expect the GM to require me to clear a DC 40 Athletics check to successfully swim up a waterfall? Or does it meant that I need to be legendary in Athletics to have a chance to succeed? Or both?
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The words themselves are the five proficiency levels. And like Perpdepog mentioned, that is used both for setting the DC and for specifying a minimum proficiency level needed for completing the task. Though those can be done separately.
There is the table of basic DC by proficiency.
Untrained 10
Trained 15
Expert 20
Master 30
Legendary 40
That is for the GM to use when there is some action a player wants to do or an obstacle to overcome that is fairly standard and doesn't have a level associated with it. The idea is that the GM can think, 'what proficiency level would someone normally need in order to complete this task?'
Swimming across a swimming pool might normally be done by someone trained. The GM can then use the DC 15. But they don't have to also require Trained proficiency. They could keep the DC, but let someone with a lower proficiency attempt it.
Swimming across a turbulent river could be decided would only be attempted by someone at Master proficiency. So DC 30. Again the GM could require Master proficiency in Athletics in order to have any possibility of success. Or they could let someone who is only Trained attempt it, but not someone who is Untrained.
To be clear, the tasks listed in that chapter are NOT assumed to be proficiency gated. But a GM (or adventure writer) could always add a gate.
Generally hazards and crafting are the only proficiency gated things l.
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Yeah they do NOT require that proficiency. Some tasks do require a proficiency, but then they'll specifically say that.
The following entries describe the skills in the game. The heading for each entry provides the skill’s name, with that skill’s key ability in parentheses. A brief description of the skill is followed by a list of actions you can use if you’re untrained in that skill, and then the actions you can perform if you are trained in that skill. Some actions list sample tasks for each rank to give you a better sense of what you can accomplish as your proficiency increases. As the actions of a skill aren’t comprehensive, there may be times when the GM asks you to attempt a skill check without using any of the listed actions, or times when the GM asks you to roll using a different key ability modifier.
The sample tasks give you an idea of what kind of things you can expect to try, with a decent chance of success.
Look at Survival for example:
Sample Sense Direction Tasks
Untrained determine a cardinal direction using the sun
Trained find an overgrown path in a forest
Expert navigate a hedge maze
Master navigate a byzantine labyrinth or relatively featureless desert
Legendary navigate an ever-changing dream realm
Sample Track Tasks
Untrained the path of a large army following a road
Trained relatively fresh tracks of a rampaging bear through the plains
Expert a nimble panther's tracks through a jungle, tracks obscured by rainfall
Master tracks obscured by winter snow, tracks of a mouse or smaller creature, tracks left on surfaces that can't hold prints like bare rock
Legendary old tracks through a windy desert’s sands, tracks after a major blizzard or hurricane
You need to be Trained in Survival to attempt tracking, but the DC to track a large army along a road is only "Untrained". This refers to Simple DCs. A simple DC of "Untrained" is 10; even someone without any training can do this by just about rolling a 10 on the die.
An expert DC is 20. Suppose you're level 3, you have a +3 ability score bonus and you're an expert in the skill, altogether you'd have a +10 on the skill so if you rolled a 10, you'd succeed. If you were untrained but had lots of talent (so, still have the +4 ability bonus), then you can still try but you need to roll a 16 to reach that DC 20.
So the sample tasks kind of give you a benchmark to see how good you should be to feel somewhat confident about doing that task. But it's not a hard requirement to have that degree of proficiency.