diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/CategorizationIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/CategorizationIT.java
index 3f643dbf3ff..b6ac94f456b 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/CategorizationIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/qa/native-multi-node-tests/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/CategorizationIT.java
@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ public class CategorizationIT extends MlNativeAutodetectIntegTestCase {
                 (MachineLearning.CATEGORIZATION_TOKENIZATION_IN_JAVA ? "Java" : "C++") + " took " + duration + "ms");
     }
 
+    @AwaitsFix(bugUrl = "https://github.com/elastic/ml-cpp/issues/1121")
     public void testNumMatchesAndCategoryPreference() throws Exception {
         String index = "hadoop_logs";
         client().admin().indices().prepareCreate(index)
@@ -286,13 +287,11 @@ public class CategorizationIT extends MlNativeAutodetectIntegTestCase {
 
         CategoryDefinition category1 = categories.get(0);
         assertThat(category1.getNumMatches(), equalTo(2L));
-        long[] expectedPreferenceTo = new long[]{2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L};
-        assertThat(category1.getPreferredToCategories().length, equalTo(5));
+        long[] expectedPreferenceTo = new long[]{2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L};
         assertThat(category1.getPreferredToCategories(), equalTo(expectedPreferenceTo));
         client().admin().indices().prepareDelete(index).get();
     }
 
-
     private static Job.Builder newJobBuilder(String id, List<String> categorizationFilters) {
         Detector.Builder detector = new Detector.Builder();
         detector.setFunction("count");