The present disclosure provides a new and innovative system, methods and apparatus for conflict resolution for strong symbols. In an example, a memory stores a plurality of instructions including a first instruction and a dynamic linker executes on one or more processors to determine that a first reference refers to a first symbol in a strong state and a second symbol in the strong state, where the first symbol and the second symbol share a first name. The first reference is resolved to a third symbol in a weak state also sharing the first name, where the third symbol is a first pointer to the first instruction.