diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index a27d3df803225..d6da2a94fa5b4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ jobs:
         # --continue:     Keep running even if a test fails
         # -PcommitId      Prevent the Git SHA being written into the jar files (which breaks caching)
         timeout-minutes: 180  # 3 hours
+        continue-on-error: true
         run: |
           ./gradlew --build-cache --scan --continue \
           -PtestLoggingEvents=started,passed,skipped,failed \
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 8305711ef05df..36df0b271c10a 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ ext {
   maxTestForks = project.hasProperty('maxParallelForks') ? maxParallelForks.toInteger() : Runtime.runtime.availableProcessors()
   maxScalacThreads = project.hasProperty('maxScalacThreads') ? maxScalacThreads.toInteger() :
       Math.min(Runtime.runtime.availableProcessors(), 8)
-  userIgnoreFailures = project.hasProperty('ignoreFailures') ? ignoreFailures : false
+  userIgnoreFailures = project.hasProperty('ignoreFailures') ? ignoreFailures.toBoolean() : false
 
   userMaxTestRetries = project.hasProperty('maxTestRetries') ? maxTestRetries.toInteger() : 0
   userMaxTestRetryFailures = project.hasProperty('maxTestRetryFailures') ? maxTestRetryFailures.toInteger() : 0
@@ -470,8 +470,13 @@ subprojects {
   def testsToExclude = ['**/*Suite.class']
 
   test {
+    ext {
+      isGithubActions = System.getenv('GITHUB_ACTIONS') != null
+      hadFailure = false  // Used to track if any tests failed, see afterSuite below
+    }
+
     maxParallelForks = maxTestForks
-    ignoreFailures = userIgnoreFailures
+    ignoreFailures = userIgnoreFailures || ext.isGithubActions
 
     maxHeapSize = defaultMaxHeapSize
     jvmArgs = defaultJvmArgs
@@ -499,6 +504,32 @@ subprojects {
         maxFailures = userMaxTestRetryFailures
       }
     }
+    
+    // As we process results, check if there were any test failures.
+    afterSuite { desc, result ->
+      if (result.resultType == TestResult.ResultType.FAILURE) {
+        ext.hadFailure = true
+      }
+    }
+
+    // This closure will copy JUnit XML files out of the sub-project's build directory and into
+    // a top-level build/junit-xml directory. This is necessary to avoid reporting on tests which
+    // were not run, but instead were restored via FROM-CACHE. See KAFKA-17479 for more details.
+    doLast {
+      if (ext.isGithubActions) {
+        def dest = rootProject.layout.buildDirectory.dir("junit-xml/${project.name}").get().asFile
+        println "Copy JUnit XML for ${project.name} to $dest"
+        ant.copy(todir: "$dest") {
+          ant.fileset(dir: "${test.reports.junitXml.entryPoint}")
+        }
+
+        // If there were any test failures, we want to fail the task to prevent the failures
+        // from being cached.
+        if (ext.hadFailure) {
+          throw new GradleException("Failing this task since '${project.name}:${name}' had test failures.")
+        }
+      }
+    }
   }
 
   task integrationTest(type: Test, dependsOn: compileJava) {
@@ -569,14 +600,6 @@ subprojects {
       delete t.reports.junitXml.outputLocation
       delete t.reports.html.outputLocation
     }
-
-    doLast {
-      def dest = rootProject.layout.buildDirectory.dir("junit-xml/${project.name}").get().asFile
-      println "Copy JUnit XML for ${project.name} to $dest"
-      ant.copy(todir: "$dest") {
-        ant.fileset(dir: "${test.reports.junitXml.entryPoint}")
-      }
-    }
   }
 
   jar {