diff --git a/ultravox/training/config_base.py b/ultravox/training/config_base.py
index cfe2dc47..9ba67054 100644
--- a/ultravox/training/config_base.py
+++ b/ultravox/training/config_base.py
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ def get_train_args(override_sys_args: Optional[List[str]] = None) -> TrainConfig
         override_sys_args: The command line arguments. If None, sys.argv[1:] is used.
             This is mainly useful for testing.
     """
-    args = override_sys_args or sys.argv[1:]
+    args = sys.argv[1:] if override_sys_args is None else override_sys_args
 
     return simple_parsing.parse(
         config_class=TrainConfig,
diff --git a/ultravox/training/config_base_test.py b/ultravox/training/config_base_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d5481574
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ultravox/training/config_base_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+from ultravox.training import config_base
+
+
+def test_can_create_train_config():
+    # override args to [], otherwise pytest arguments will be used
+    args = config_base.get_train_args([])
+    assert isinstance(args, config_base.TrainConfig)