diff --git a/examples/elastic/tensorflow2/tensorflow2_mnist_elastic.py b/examples/elastic/tensorflow2/tensorflow2_mnist_elastic.py
index dce0d31a22..33d45164e6 100644
--- a/examples/elastic/tensorflow2/tensorflow2_mnist_elastic.py
+++ b/examples/elastic/tensorflow2/tensorflow2_mnist_elastic.py
@@ -106,6 +106,9 @@ def on_state_reset():
     if hvd.rank() == 0:
         checkpoint.save(checkpoint_dir)
 
+    # return some serializable data if needed
+    return hvd.rank()
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     if len(sys.argv) == 5:
@@ -115,8 +118,12 @@ def on_state_reset():
         max_num_proc = int(sys.argv[3])
         hosts = sys.argv[4]
         print('Running training through horovod.run')
-        horovod.run(main, num_proc=num_proc, min_num_proc=min_num_proc, max_num_proc=max_num_proc,
-                    hosts=hosts, use_gloo=True, verbose=2)
+        ranks = horovod.run(main, num_proc=num_proc, min_num_proc=min_num_proc, max_num_proc=max_num_proc,
+                            hosts=hosts, use_gloo=True, verbose=2)
+
+        if ranks != range(min_num_proc):
+            raise RuntimeError(f'Expected training method to return ranks {",".join(range(min_num_proc))}, '
+                               f'got: {",".join(ranks)}')
     else:
         # this is running via horovodrun
         main()