diff --git a/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/utilities/file_backed_collections.py b/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/utilities/file_backed_collections.py
index b67f9c1a9ffa15..b0f5022446de15 100644
--- a/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/utilities/file_backed_collections.py
+++ b/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/utilities/file_backed_collections.py
@@ -228,6 +228,12 @@ def __post_init__(self) -> None:
         else:
             self._conn = ConnectionWrapper()
 
+        if sqlite3.sqlite_version_info < (3, 24, 0):
+            # We use the ON CONFLICT clause to implement UPSERTs with sqlite.
+            # This was added in 3.24.0 from 2018-06-04.
+            # See https://www.sqlite.org/lang_conflict.html
+            raise RuntimeError("SQLite version 3.24.0 or later is required")
+
         # We keep a small cache in memory to avoid having to serialize/deserialize
         # data from the database too often. We use an OrderedDict to build
         # a poor-man's LRU cache.