diff --git a/code_to_optimize/code_directories/simple_tracer_e2e/workload.py b/code_to_optimize/code_directories/simple_tracer_e2e/workload.py
index 2333fa990..b76113b59 100644
--- a/code_to_optimize/code_directories/simple_tracer_e2e/workload.py
+++ b/code_to_optimize/code_directories/simple_tracer_e2e/workload.py
@@ -28,13 +28,11 @@ def __init__(self, num_classes=1000):
         self.features_size = 256 * 6 * 6
 
     def forward(self, x):
-        features = self._extract_features(x)
-
-        output = self._classify(features)
-        return output
+        # Directly return [] since _extract_features returns [] always
+        return []
 
     def _extract_features(self, x):
-        # Return empty list immediately; no need to iterate over x
+        # Return empty list immediately
         return []
 
     def _classify(self, features):