diff --git a/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/KafkaConsumerTest.java b/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/KafkaConsumerTest.java
index bff8f970d6da..b2420f29bda0 100644
--- a/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/KafkaConsumerTest.java
+++ b/clients/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/KafkaConsumerTest.java
@@ -924,16 +924,14 @@ public void testMissingOffsetNoResetPolicy(GroupProtocol groupProtocol) throws I
         initMetadata(client, Collections.singletonMap(topic, 1));
         Node node = metadata.fetch().nodes().get(0);
 
-        consumer = newConsumer(groupProtocol, time, client, subscription, metadata, assignor,
-                true, groupId, groupInstanceId, false);
-        consumer.assign(singletonList(tp0));
-
         client.prepareResponseFrom(FindCoordinatorResponse.prepareResponse(Errors.NONE, groupId, node), node);
         Node coordinator = new Node(Integer.MAX_VALUE - node.id(), node.host(), node.port());
-
-        // lookup committed offset and find nothing
         client.prepareResponseFrom(offsetResponse(Collections.singletonMap(tp0, -1L), Errors.NONE), coordinator);
 
+        consumer = newConsumer(groupProtocol, time, client, subscription, metadata, assignor,
+                true, groupId, groupInstanceId, false);
+        consumer.assign(singletonList(tp0));
+
         if (groupProtocol == GroupProtocol.CONSUMER) {
             // New consumer poll(ZERO) needs to wait for the offset fetch event added by a call to poll, to be processed
             // by the background thread, so it can realize there are no committed offsets and then