Describe how Poetry's dependency resolver handles conflicts compared to a simple 'pip install'.
Python interview question for Advanced practice.
Answer
Pip traditionally uses a linear resolution strategy which can lead to conflicts where the last installed package overwrites sub-dependencies of an earlier one. Poetry uses a deterministic resolver that checks the entire dependency tree (transitive dependencies) for all packages simultaneously. If a conflict occurs (e.g., Package A needs v1.0 and Package B needs v2.0 of the same library), Poetry will fail to install and provide a detailed explanation rather than leaving the environment in a broken state.
Explanation
Poetry uses a custom solver called 'PubGrub'.