diff --git a/test/distributed/test_c10d_nccl.py b/test/distributed/test_c10d_nccl.py
index 1326a9acb61e2..242dcd951545d 100644
--- a/test/distributed/test_c10d_nccl.py
+++ b/test/distributed/test_c10d_nccl.py
@@ -587,6 +587,14 @@ def _helper_test_extra_cuda_context_by_memory(self):
         """
         device = torch.device("cuda:%d" % self.rank)
         x = torch.empty((1,), device=device)
+
+        # We need this barrier to ensure that all nodes have completed init_process_group
+        # If rank=0 gets a mem snapshot before other nodes have finished init_process_group,
+        # then we artificially see a bump in memory usage. As per the following comment,
+        # we are going to be moving away from this function:
+        # https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/pull/154174#discussion_r2105065931
+        c10d.barrier()
+
         # Rank 0 takes a snapshot before collective -- this snapshot should have
         # included rank 0's own context.
         if self.rank == 0: