diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 9681bdd85a7..b1bcf2e338b 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -546,6 +546,7 @@ subprojects {
   task quarantinedTest(type: Test, dependsOn: compileJava) {
     ext {
       isGithubActions = System.getenv('GITHUB_ACTIONS') != null
+      hadFailure = false  // Used to track if any tests failed, see afterSuite below
     }
 
     // Disable caching and up-to-date for this task. We always want quarantined tests
@@ -584,6 +585,13 @@ subprojects {
       }
     }
 
+    // As we process results, check if there were any test failures.
+    afterSuite { desc, result ->
+      if (result.resultType == TestResult.ResultType.FAILURE) {
+        ext.hadFailure = true
+      }
+    }
+
     // This closure will copy JUnit XML files out of the sub-project's build directory and into
     // a top-level build/junit-xml directory. This is necessary to avoid reporting on tests which
     // were not run, but instead were restored via FROM-CACHE. See KAFKA-17479 for more details.
@@ -597,6 +605,11 @@ subprojects {
             ant.include(name: "**/*.xml")
           }
         }
+        // If there were any test failures, we want to fail the task to prevent the failures
+        // from being cached.
+        if (ext.hadFailure) {
+          throw new GradleException("Failing this task since '${project.name}:${name}' had test failures.")
+        }
       }
     }
   }