diff --git a/core/tests/Drupal/BuildTests/Composer/Template/ComposerProjectTemplatesTest.php b/core/tests/Drupal/BuildTests/Composer/Template/ComposerProjectTemplatesTest.php
index d51042e487..d6d90504e1 100644
--- a/core/tests/Drupal/BuildTests/Composer/Template/ComposerProjectTemplatesTest.php
+++ b/core/tests/Drupal/BuildTests/Composer/Template/ComposerProjectTemplatesTest.php
@@ -145,8 +145,11 @@ public function testTemplateCreateProject($project, $package_dir, $docroot_dir)
     $this->assertFileExists($template_json_file);
     $json_file = new JsonFile($template_json_file);
     $template_json = $json_file->read();
-    // Get the require and require-dev information.
-    $require = array_merge($template_json['require'] ?? [], $template_json['require-dev'] ?? []);
+    // Get the require and require-dev information, and ensure that our
+    // requirements are not erroneously empty.
+    $this->assertNotEmpty(
+      $require = array_merge($template_json['require'] ?? [], $template_json['require-dev'] ?? [])
+    );
     // Verify that path repo packages were installed.
     $path_repos = array_keys($path_repos);
     foreach (array_keys($require) as $package_name) {