diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/genericapiserver.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/genericapiserver.go
index 74501c250bf..794a5db2f77 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/genericapiserver.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/server/genericapiserver.go
@@ -836,6 +836,9 @@ func (s *GenericAPIServer) InstallLegacyAPIGroup(apiPrefix string, apiGroupInfo
 // underlying storage will be destroyed on this servers shutdown.
 func (s *GenericAPIServer) InstallAPIGroups(apiGroupInfos ...*APIGroupInfo) error {
 	for _, apiGroupInfo := range apiGroupInfos {
+		if len(apiGroupInfo.PrioritizedVersions) == 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("no version priority set for %#v", *apiGroupInfo)
+		}
 		// Do not register empty group or empty version.  Doing so claims /apis/ for the wrong entity to be returned.
 		// Catching these here places the error  much closer to its origin
 		if len(apiGroupInfo.PrioritizedVersions[0].Group) == 0 {