diff --git a/cpp/include/raft/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh b/cpp/include/raft/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh
index 8fcba38883..192850cf2d 100644
--- a/cpp/include/raft/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh
+++ b/cpp/include/raft/neighbors/detail/cagra/graph_core.cuh
@@ -528,8 +528,9 @@ void optimize(raft::resources const& res,
     constexpr int _omp_chunk = 1024;
 #pragma omp parallel for schedule(dynamic, _omp_chunk)
     for (uint64_t j = 0; j < graph_size; j++) {
-      for (uint64_t _k = 0; _k < rev_graph_count.data_handle()[j]; _k++) {
-        uint64_t k = rev_graph_count.data_handle()[j] - 1 - _k;
+      uint64_t k = std::min(rev_graph_count.data_handle()[j], output_graph_degree);
+      while (k) {
+        k--;
         uint64_t i = rev_graph.data_handle()[k + (output_graph_degree * j)];
 
         uint64_t pos =