diff --git a/crates/xtrain-distributed/tests/ddp_proc.rs b/crates/xtrain-distributed/tests/ddp_proc.rs
index 5f1e2d5..7c30f9f 100644
--- a/crates/xtrain-distributed/tests/ddp_proc.rs
+++ b/crates/xtrain-distributed/tests/ddp_proc.rs
@@ -229,8 +229,16 @@ fn proc_per_gpu_matches_single_gpu_and_thread_path() {
     let dump_dir = std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("xtrain_t17_{}", std::process::id()));
     std::fs::create_dir_all(&dump_dir).unwrap();
     // SAFETY: single-threaded test (forced by --test-threads=1) sets this env
-    // before spawning workers; no concurrent env access.
+    // before spawning workers; no concurrent env access. ENV_DROPOUT is cleared
+    // defensively — libtest orders `--test-threads=1` runs alphabetically, so the
+    // sibling `proc_per_gpu_dropout_is_live_...` test (starts with 'd') runs BEFORE
+    // this one (starts with 'm'). If it happened to leak `ENV_DROPOUT=0.2` in this
+    // process's env, the workers here would inherit it (Command inherits parent
+    // env by default) and build with dropout=0.2 while the single-GPU baseline
+    // (run_single_gpu → test_config → dropout=0) stays at 0 — GATE (a) would blow up.
+    // Explicit remove here severs that ordering coupling.
     unsafe {
+        std::env::remove_var(ENV_DROPOUT);
         std::env::set_var(ENV_DUMP_DIR, &dump_dir);
     }
     // Re-exec the test binary but run ONLY this test, single-threaded, so the
@@ -380,6 +388,16 @@ fn proc_per_gpu_dropout_is_live_and_p0_matches_no_dropout() {
         "p=0.2 proc-per-GPU loss has non-finite values"
     );
 
+    // Clear the launcher→worker env keys so we don't leak state to anything that
+    // runs later in this process. `proc_per_gpu_matches_single_gpu_and_thread_path`
+    // clears ENV_DROPOUT defensively too, but keeping the invariant "each test
+    // leaves the env as it found it" costs nothing.
+    // SAFETY: single-threaded test (forced by --test-threads=1); no concurrent env access.
+    unsafe {
+        std::env::remove_var(ENV_DROPOUT);
+        std::env::remove_var(ENV_DUMP_DIR);
+    }
+
     let _ = std::fs::remove_dir_all(&base_dump_dir);
 }