diff --git a/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py b/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py
index 303de8d61df4f..1429a067d2bd2 100644
--- a/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py
+++ b/tests/rptest/tests/cloud_storage_chunk_read_path_test.py
@@ -369,6 +369,9 @@ def test_read_when_cache_smaller_than_segment_size(self):
 
         self._consume_baseline(timeout=180, max_msgs=read_count)
         observe_cache_dir.stop()
+        observe_cache_dir.join(timeout=10)
+        assert not observe_cache_dir.is_alive(
+        ), 'cache observer is unexpectedly alive'
 
         self._assert_not_in_cache(fr'.*kafka/{self.topic}/.*\.log\.[0-9]+$')
         self._assert_in_cache(f'.*kafka/{self.topic}/.*_chunks/[0-9]+')