Job timeout risk: ee/spec/policies/merge_request_policy_spec.rb ran much longer than expected

Why was this issue created?

ee/spec/policies/merge_request_policy_spec.rb was reported to have:

1. exceeded Knapsack's expected runtime by at least 50%, and
2. been identified as a notable pipeline bottleneck and a job timeout risk

Suggested steps for investigation

1. To reproduce in CI by running test files in the same order, you can follow the steps listed here.
2. Identify if a specific test case is stalling the run time. Hint: You can search the job's log for Starting example group ee/spec/policies/merge_request_policy_spec.rb and view the elapsed time after each test case in the proceeding lines starting with [RSpecRunTime].
3. If the test file is large, consider refactoring it into multiple files to allow better test parallelization across runners.
4. If the run time cannot be fixed in time, consider quarantine the spec(s) to restore performance.

Run time details

• Reported from pipeline 4514897 created at 2025-08-21T14:46:13Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-35-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 34 minutes 15.77 seconds, actual: 70 minutes 37.34 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 5 minutes 11.87 seconds, actual: 10 minutes 40.08 seconds
Spec file weight	15.11% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4734236 created at 2025-10-15T11:37:39Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-37-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 42 minutes 17.48 seconds, actual: 79 minutes 37.56 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 15.17 seconds, actual: 12 minutes 12.72 seconds
Spec file weight	15.34% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4736355 created at 2025-10-15T18:05:35Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-37-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 42 minutes 45.29 seconds, actual: 72 minutes 49.95 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 32.18 seconds, actual: 13 minutes 14.02 seconds
Spec file weight	18.17% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4746139 created at 2025-10-17T12:52:41Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-34-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 42 minutes 58.01 seconds, actual: 72 minutes 54.18 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 44.8 seconds, actual: 16 minutes 48.56 seconds
Spec file weight	23.06% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4781496 created at 2025-10-27T16:29:39Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-34-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 42 minutes 21.78 seconds, actual: 75 minutes 19.96 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 46.36 seconds, actual: 15 minutes 42.73 seconds
Spec file weight	20.86% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4785626 created at 2025-10-28T11:17:07Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-30-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 42 minutes 17.18 seconds, actual: 74 minutes 14.38 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 8 minutes 28.48 seconds, actual: 15 minutes 37.28 seconds
Spec file weight	21.04% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4817321 created at 2025-11-04T15:15:17Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-single-db-ci-connection-33-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 41 minutes 17.97 seconds, actual: 71 minutes 40.64 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 59.94 seconds, actual: 12 minutes 40.12 seconds
Spec file weight	17.67% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4823017 created at 2025-11-05T14:17:06Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-35-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 39 minutes 49.33 seconds, actual: 79 minutes 35.9 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 27.69 seconds, actual: 14 minutes 15.64 seconds
Spec file weight	17.92% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4823124 created at 2025-11-05T14:40:21Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-35-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 39 minutes 49.33 seconds, actual: 70 minutes 5.19 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 27.69 seconds, actual: 14 minutes 29.74 seconds
Spec file weight	20.68% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4845562 created at 2025-11-11T14:28:29Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-38-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 41 minutes 48.69 seconds, actual: 70 minutes 33.58 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 27.59 seconds, actual: 12 minutes 0.43 second
Spec file weight	17.02% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4856216 created at 2025-11-13T17:27:07Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-single-db-36-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 41 minutes 45.03 seconds, actual: 77 minutes 29.58 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 28.02 seconds, actual: 13 minutes 21.34 seconds
Spec file weight	17.23% of total suite run time

• Reported from pipeline 4871052 created at 2025-11-18T11:12:56Z

Field	Value
Job URL	rspec-ee-unit-pg16-37-39
Job total RSpec suite run time	expected: 42 minutes 27.29 seconds, actual: 75 minutes 18.01 seconds
Spec file run time	expected: 7 minutes 38.92 seconds, actual: 17 minutes 34.84 seconds
Spec file weight	23.35% of total suite run time