diff --git a/tests/run_tests_distributed.py b/tests/run_tests_distributed.py
index 8c4af8e1..abf32966 100755
--- a/tests/run_tests_distributed.py
+++ b/tests/run_tests_distributed.py
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ def _distributed_worker(rank, world_size, test_file, pytest_args):
         try:
             # Run pytest directly in this process
             exit_code = pytest.main([test_file] + pytest_args)
+            # If tests failed, exit with the failure code
+            if exit_code != 0:
+                sys.exit(exit_code)
             return exit_code
         finally:
             # Restore original argv
@@ -82,7 +85,19 @@ def main():
     print(f"args={args}, test_file={test_file}, pytest_args={pytest_args}")
 
     # Run all tests within a single distributed process group
-    mp.spawn(_distributed_worker, args=(num_ranks, test_file, pytest_args), nprocs=num_ranks, join=True)
+    try:
+        mp.spawn(
+            _distributed_worker,
+            args=(num_ranks, test_file, pytest_args),
+            nprocs=num_ranks,
+            join=True,
+        )
+    except SystemExit as e:
+        # Catch sys.exit() from worker and return same exit code
+        sys.exit(e.code if isinstance(e.code, int) else 1)
+    except Exception:
+        # Any other unhandled exception = failure
+        sys.exit(1)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":