diff --git a/sycl/include/sycl/usm/usm_allocator.hpp b/sycl/include/sycl/usm/usm_allocator.hpp
index 6ae1da5a3e350..31d9c5ec9a955 100644
--- a/sycl/include/sycl/usm/usm_allocator.hpp
+++ b/sycl/include/sycl/usm/usm_allocator.hpp
@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ class usm_allocator {
   T *allocate(size_t NumberOfElements, const detail::code_location CodeLoc =
                                            detail::code_location::current()) {
 
+    if (!NumberOfElements)
+      return nullptr;
+
     auto Result = reinterpret_cast<T *>(
         aligned_alloc(getAlignment(), NumberOfElements * sizeof(value_type),
                       MDevice, MContext, AllocKind, MPropList, CodeLoc));
diff --git a/sycl/test-e2e/USM/usm_allocator_zero_allocation.cpp b/sycl/test-e2e/USM/usm_allocator_zero_allocation.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..b8aace8933c28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sycl/test-e2e/USM/usm_allocator_zero_allocation.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+// RUN: %{build} -o %t.out
+// RUN: %{run} %t.out
+
+#include <sycl/sycl.hpp>
+
+using namespace sycl;
+
+template <usm::alloc alloc_kind> void test(queue &q) {
+  sycl::usm_allocator<int, alloc_kind> ua(q);
+  int *p = ua.allocate(0);
+
+  assert(!p && "Our implementation of usm_allocator is expected to return a "
+               "null pointer when allocation size is zero.");
+
+  ua.deallocate(p, 0);
+}
+
+int main() {
+  queue q;
+  auto dev = q.get_device();
+
+  if (dev.has(aspect::usm_host_allocations)) {
+    test<usm::alloc::host>(q);
+  }
+  if (dev.has(aspect::usm_shared_allocations)) {
+    test<usm::alloc::shared>(q);
+  }
+
+  return 0;
+}