Should you spoil the ending in your synopsis?

Short answer: Donovan Levine’s advice: It depends on the agent’s guidelines, but Donovan prefers you give the ending away and skip cliffhangers, because the synopsis is where he judges how you execute the plot.

Answered by Donovan Levine, Associate Literary Agent, Neighborhood Literary.

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The agent’s answer

This is a question Donovan says he gets a lot, and his answer is a clear it-depends anchored to agent guidelines. Some agents explicitly do not want the book spoiled in the blurb or synopsis; others are relatively okay with it. His own stance is that spoilers are welcome, partly because he expects to forget them before reading the manuscript, but mainly because the synopsis is where he evaluates execution: how a writer pulls off a crime thriller's big reveal or a romance's resolution. He warns against leaning on cliffhangers or pitch-worthy one-liners, which belong in the query letter, because a synopsis exists to describe the book clearly from beginning to middle to end, and cliffhangers make that harder and breed confusion.

In Donovan’s words

Some agents will specifically request that you don't spoil the book.
Donovan Levine, 09:38

Source: Synopsis & Comp Titles.