diff --git a/src/__tests__/unit/evaluation-options.test.ts b/src/__tests__/unit/evaluation-options.test.ts
index 38877c16..fa9850cc 100644
--- a/src/__tests__/unit/evaluation-options.test.ts
+++ b/src/__tests__/unit/evaluation-options.test.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ describe('Evaluation options evaluator', () => {
       stackTrace: {
         saveState: false
       },
+      strictSortKey: false,
       throwOnInternalWriteError: true,
       transactionsPagesPerBatch: null,
       unsafeClient: 'throw',
@@ -65,6 +66,7 @@ describe('Evaluation options evaluator', () => {
       stackTrace: {
         saveState: false
       },
+      strictSortKey: false,
       throwOnInternalWriteError: true,
       transactionsPagesPerBatch: null,
       unsafeClient: 'throw',
@@ -99,6 +101,7 @@ describe('Evaluation options evaluator', () => {
       stackTrace: {
         saveState: false
       },
+      strictSortKey: false,
       throwOnInternalWriteError: true,
       transactionsPagesPerBatch: null,
       unsafeClient: 'allow',
@@ -130,6 +133,7 @@ describe('Evaluation options evaluator', () => {
       stackTrace: {
         saveState: false
       },
+      strictSortKey: false,
       throwOnInternalWriteError: true,
       transactionsPagesPerBatch: null,
       unsafeClient: 'allow',
@@ -161,6 +165,7 @@ describe('Evaluation options evaluator', () => {
       stackTrace: {
         saveState: false
       },
+      strictSortKey: false,
       throwOnInternalWriteError: true,
       transactionsPagesPerBatch: null,
       unsafeClient: 'throw',
@@ -192,6 +197,7 @@ describe('Evaluation options evaluator', () => {
       stackTrace: {
         saveState: false
       },
+      strictSortKey: false,
       throwOnInternalWriteError: true,
       transactionsPagesPerBatch: null,
       unsafeClient: 'skip',
diff --git a/src/contract/EvaluationOptionsEvaluator.ts b/src/contract/EvaluationOptionsEvaluator.ts
index 47d69184..4118fb11 100644
--- a/src/contract/EvaluationOptionsEvaluator.ts
+++ b/src/contract/EvaluationOptionsEvaluator.ts
@@ -108,14 +108,16 @@ export class EvaluationOptionsEvaluator {
     useKVStorage: (foreignOptions) => foreignOptions['useKVStorage'],
     useConstructor: (foreignOptions) => foreignOptions['useConstructor'],
     whitelistSources: () => this.rootOptions['whitelistSources'],
-    transactionsPagesPerBatch: () => this.rootOptions['transactionsPagesPerBatch']
+    transactionsPagesPerBatch: () => this.rootOptions['transactionsPagesPerBatch'],
+    strictSortKey: () => this.rootOptions['strictSortKey']
   };
 
   private readonly notConflictingEvaluationOptions: (keyof EvaluationOptions)[] = [
     'useKVStorage',
     'sourceType',
     'useConstructor',
-    'transactionsPagesPerBatch'
+    'transactionsPagesPerBatch',
+    'strictSortKey'
   ];
 
   /**
diff --git a/src/contract/HandlerBasedContract.ts b/src/contract/HandlerBasedContract.ts
index 093f05a7..4de00042 100644
--- a/src/contract/HandlerBasedContract.ts
+++ b/src/contract/HandlerBasedContract.ts
@@ -647,6 +647,9 @@ export class HandlerBasedContract<State> implements Contract<State> {
       >;
     }
     cachedState = cachedState || (await stateEvaluator.latestAvailableState<State>(contractTxId, upToSortKey));
+    if (upToSortKey && this.evaluationOptions().strictSortKey && cachedState?.sortKey != upToSortKey) {
+      throw new Error(`State not cached at the exact required ${upToSortKey} sortKey`);
+    }
 
     this.logger.debug('cache lookup', benchmark.elapsed());
     benchmark.reset();
diff --git a/src/core/modules/StateEvaluator.ts b/src/core/modules/StateEvaluator.ts
index 98fe638d..47502bbe 100644
--- a/src/core/modules/StateEvaluator.ts
+++ b/src/core/modules/StateEvaluator.ts
@@ -154,6 +154,8 @@ export class DefaultEvaluationOptions implements EvaluationOptions {
   whitelistSources = [];
 
   transactionsPagesPerBatch = null;
+
+  strictSortKey = false;
 }
 
 // an interface for the contract EvaluationOptions - can be used to change the behaviour of some features.
@@ -243,9 +245,16 @@ export interface EvaluationOptions {
   // remote source for fetching most recent contract state, only applicable if remoteStateSyncEnabled is set to true
   remoteStateSyncSource: string;
 
+  // an array of source tx ids that are allowed to be evaluated by the SDK
   whitelistSources: string[];
 
+  // how many interactions pages are evaluated in a single evaluation batch
   transactionsPagesPerBatch: number;
+
+  // whether passing sortKey to some functions like viewState or readStateFor is strict
+  // - if it is, then we're requiring the SDK to have the state cached at this exact sortKey
+  // - so that SDK won't load and evaluated missing interactions
+  strictSortKey: boolean;
 }
 
 // https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/40678 duh...