diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/BUILD b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/BUILD
index cf4d2f2427b..fa038f0dcc6 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/BUILD
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/BUILD
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_library")
+load("@io_bazel_rules_go//go:def.bzl", "go_library", "go_test")
 
 go_library(
     name = "go_default_library",
@@ -32,3 +32,15 @@ filegroup(
     tags = ["automanaged"],
     visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
 )
+
+go_test(
+    name = "go_default_test",
+    srcs = ["sample_and_watermark_test.go"],
+    embed = [":go_default_library"],
+    deps = [
+        "//staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/clock:go_default_library",
+        "//staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics:go_default_library",
+        "//staging/src/k8s.io/component-base/metrics/legacyregistry:go_default_library",
+        "//vendor/k8s.io/klog/v2:go_default_library",
+    ],
+)
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/sample_and_watermark_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/sample_and_watermark_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ef0795d46cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/util/flowcontrol/metrics/sample_and_watermark_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2021 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package metrics
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"math/rand"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/clock"
+	compbasemetrics "k8s.io/component-base/metrics"
+	"k8s.io/component-base/metrics/legacyregistry"
+	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
+)
+
+const (
+	samplesHistName       = "sawtestsamples"
+	samplingPeriod        = time.Millisecond
+	ddtRangeCentiPeriods  = 300
+	ddtOffsetCentiPeriods = 50
+	numIterations         = 100
+)
+
+/* TestSampler does a rough behavioral test of the sampling in a
+   SampleAndWatermarkHistograms.  The test creates one and exercises
+   it, checking that the count in the sampling histogram is correct at
+   each step.  The sampling histogram is expected to get one
+   observation at the end of each sampling period.  A fake clock is
+   used, and the exercise consists of repeatedly changing that fake
+   clock by an amount of time chosen uniformly at random from a range
+   that goes from a little negative to somewhat more than two sampling
+   periods.  The negative changes are included because small negative
+   changes have been observed in real monotonic clock readings (see
+   issue #96459) and we want to test that they are properly tolerated.
+   The designed toleration is to pretend that the clock did not
+   change, until it resumes net forward progress.
+*/
+func TestSampler(t *testing.T) {
+	t0 := time.Now()
+	clk := clock.NewFakePassiveClock(t0)
+	buckets := []float64{0, 1}
+	gen := NewSampleAndWaterMarkHistogramsGenerator(clk, samplingPeriod,
+		&compbasemetrics.HistogramOpts{Name: samplesHistName, Buckets: buckets},
+		&compbasemetrics.HistogramOpts{Name: "marks", Buckets: buckets},
+		[]string{})
+	saw := gen.Generate(0, 1, []string{})
+	regs := gen.metrics()
+	for _, reg := range regs {
+		legacyregistry.MustRegister(reg)
+	}
+	// `dt` is the admitted cumulative difference in fake time
+	// since the start of the test.  "admitted" means this is
+	// never allowed to decrease, which matches the designed
+	// toleration for negative monotonic clock changes.
+	var dt time.Duration
+	// `t1` is the current fake time
+	t1 := t0.Add(dt)
+	klog.Infof("Expect about %v warnings about time going backwards; this is fake time deliberately misbehaving.", (numIterations*ddtOffsetCentiPeriods)/ddtRangeCentiPeriods)
+	t.Logf("t0=%s", t0)
+	for i := 0; i < numIterations; i++ {
+		// `ddt` is the next step to take in fake time
+		ddt := time.Duration(rand.Intn(ddtRangeCentiPeriods)-ddtOffsetCentiPeriods) * samplingPeriod / 100
+		t1 = t1.Add(ddt)
+		diff := t1.Sub(t0)
+		if diff > dt {
+			dt = diff
+		}
+		clk.SetTime(t1)
+		saw.Set(1)
+		expectedCount := int64(dt / samplingPeriod)
+		actualCount, err := getHistogramCount(regs, samplesHistName)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("For t0=%s, t1=%s, failed to getHistogramCount: %#+v", t0, t1, err)
+		}
+		t.Logf("For i=%d, ddt=%s, t1=%s, diff=%s, dt=%s, count=%d", i, ddt, t1, diff, dt, actualCount)
+		if expectedCount != actualCount {
+			t.Errorf("For i=%d, t0=%s, ddt=%s, t1=%s, expectedCount=%d, actualCount=%d", i, t0, ddt, t1, expectedCount, actualCount)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+/* getHistogramCount returns the count of the named histogram */
+func getHistogramCount(regs Registerables, metricName string) (int64, error) {
+	considered := []string{}
+	mfs, err := legacyregistry.DefaultGatherer.Gather()
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf("failed to gather metrics: %s", err)
+	}
+	for _, mf := range mfs {
+		thisName := mf.GetName()
+		if thisName != metricName {
+			considered = append(considered, thisName)
+			continue
+		}
+		metric := mf.GetMetric()[0]
+		hist := metric.GetHistogram()
+		if hist == nil {
+			return 0, fmt.Errorf("dto.Metric has nil Histogram")
+		}
+		if hist.SampleCount == nil {
+			return 0, fmt.Errorf("dto.Histogram has nil SampleCount")
+		}
+		return int64(*hist.SampleCount), nil
+	}
+	return 0, fmt.Errorf("not found, considered=%#+v", considered)
+}