DevOps Interview DropAdvanced TierScenario+50 XP on read

Two CI pipelines try to create the same Git release tag at the same time. What happens?

Core Summary

The remote accepts one push and rejects the other, because ref updates are atomic. The danger isn't the collision, it's a pipeline that "fixes" the rejection with --force, which silently moves an existing release tag onto a different commit. Serialize releases and protect tags server-side.

Hints

Hint 1: A ref update on the server is atomic, one winner

Hint 2: The real risk is the retry logic, not the collision

Hint 3: A release tag should be immutable

Reported in interviews at GitLab, Stripe