diff --git a/components/abstractions/spotBugsExcludeFilter.xml b/components/abstractions/spotBugsExcludeFilter.xml
index 8c33623ae..cf787f100 100644
--- a/components/abstractions/spotBugsExcludeFilter.xml
+++ b/components/abstractions/spotBugsExcludeFilter.xml
@@ -80,4 +80,10 @@ xsi:schemaLocation="https://github.com/spotbugs/filter/3.0.0 https://raw.githubu
             <Class name="com.microsoft.kiota.serialization.SerializationWriterProxyFactory" />
         </Or>
     </Match>
+    <!-- These calls deliberately violate nullability to verify argument validation. -->
+    <Match>
+        <Bug pattern="NP_NONNULL_PARAM_VIOLATION" />
+        <Class name="com.microsoft.kiota.serialization.FactoryRegistryExceptionTest" />
+        <Method name="~lambda\$invalidArgumentsKeepTheirValidationExceptions\$.*" />
+    </Match>
 </FindBugsFilter>
diff --git a/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/ClientException.java b/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/ClientException.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2be6368bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/ClientException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+package com.microsoft.kiota;
+
+import jakarta.annotation.Nonnull;
+
+/** An error in client-side request or response processing, rather than an API error response. */
+public class ClientException extends RuntimeException {
+    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
+
+    /** {@inheritDoc} */
+    public ClientException() {
+        super();
+    }
+
+    /** {@inheritDoc} */
+    public ClientException(@Nonnull final String message) {
+        super(message);
+    }
+
+    /** {@inheritDoc} */
+    public ClientException(@Nonnull final String message, @Nonnull final Throwable cause) {
+        super(message, cause);
+    }
+
+    /** {@inheritDoc} */
+    public ClientException(@Nonnull final Throwable cause) {
+        super(cause);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/ParseNodeFactoryRegistry.java b/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/ParseNodeFactoryRegistry.java
index 61e06c997..84f1b3d71 100644
--- a/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/ParseNodeFactoryRegistry.java
+++ b/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/ParseNodeFactoryRegistry.java
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 package com.microsoft.kiota.serialization;
 
+import com.microsoft.kiota.ClientException;
+
 import jakarta.annotation.Nonnull;
 
 import java.io.InputStream;
@@ -32,6 +34,9 @@ public ParseNodeFactoryRegistry() {
     private static final Pattern contentTypeVendorCleanupPattern =
             Pattern.compile("[^/]+\\+", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
 
+    /** {@inheritDoc}
+     * @throws ClientException when no factory is registered for the content type
+     */
     @Override
     @Nonnull public ParseNode getParseNode(
             @Nonnull final String contentType, @Nonnull final InputStream rawResponse) {
@@ -53,7 +58,7 @@ public ParseNodeFactoryRegistry() {
                     .get(cleanedContentType)
                     .getParseNode(cleanedContentType, rawResponse);
         }
-        throw new RuntimeException(
+        throw new ClientException(
                 "Content type " + cleanedContentType + " does not have a factory to be parsed");
     }
 }
diff --git a/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry.java b/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry.java
index 9fcb2cb23..af7cb3a97 100644
--- a/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry.java
+++ b/components/abstractions/src/main/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package com.microsoft.kiota.serialization;
 
+import com.microsoft.kiota.ClientException;
 import com.microsoft.kiota.store.BackingStoreSerializationWriterProxyFactory;
 
 import jakarta.annotation.Nonnull;
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ public SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry() {
      * @param contentType
      * @param serializeOnlyChangedValues control backing store functionality
      * @return the serialization writer
-     * @throws RuntimeException when no factory is found for content type
+     * @throws ClientException when no factory is found for content type
      */
     @Nonnull public SerializationWriter getSerializationWriter(
             @Nonnull final String contentType, final boolean serializeOnlyChangedValues) {
@@ -59,7 +60,7 @@ public SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry() {
                     getSerializationWriterFactory(
                             getCleanedVendorSpecificContentType(cleanedContentType));
             if (factory == null) {
-                throw new RuntimeException(
+                throw new ClientException(
                         "Content type "
                                 + contentType
                                 + " does not have a factory to be serialized");
diff --git a/components/abstractions/src/test/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/FactoryRegistryExceptionTest.java b/components/abstractions/src/test/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/FactoryRegistryExceptionTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bd00b5ec4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/components/abstractions/src/test/java/com/microsoft/kiota/serialization/FactoryRegistryExceptionTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+package com.microsoft.kiota.serialization;
+
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
+
+import com.microsoft.kiota.ClientException;
+import com.microsoft.kiota.Compatibility;
+
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
+import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+
+class FactoryRegistryExceptionTest {
+    @Test
+    void unsupportedResponseContentTypeThrowsClientException() {
+        var registry = new ParseNodeFactoryRegistry();
+        var response =
+                new ByteArrayInputStream(
+                        "<html>Unavailable</html>".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+        var error =
+                assertThrows(
+                        ClientException.class,
+                        () -> registry.getParseNode("text/html; charset=utf-8", response));
+        assertEquals(
+                "Content type text/html does not have a factory to be parsed", error.getMessage());
+    }
+
+    @ParameterizedTest
+    @ValueSource(booleans = {true, false})
+    void unsupportedRequestContentTypeThrowsClientException(boolean changedValuesOnly) {
+        var registry = new SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry();
+        var error =
+                assertThrows(
+                        ClientException.class,
+                        () -> registry.getSerializationWriter("text/html", changedValuesOnly));
+        assertEquals(
+                "Content type text/html does not have a factory to be serialized",
+                error.getMessage());
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void invalidArgumentsKeepTheirValidationExceptions() {
+        var parser = new ParseNodeFactoryRegistry();
+        var writer = new SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry();
+        assertThrows(
+                NullPointerException.class,
+                () -> parser.getParseNode(null, new ByteArrayInputStream(new byte[0])));
+        assertThrows(
+                NullPointerException.class,
+                () -> parser.getParseNode("", new ByteArrayInputStream(new byte[0])));
+        assertThrows(NullPointerException.class, () -> parser.getParseNode("text/html", null));
+        assertThrows(NullPointerException.class, () -> writer.getSerializationWriter(null));
+        assertThrows(NullPointerException.class, () -> writer.getSerializationWriter(""));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void registeredVendorContentTypesStillWork() throws Exception {
+        var parser = new ParseNodeFactoryRegistry();
+        parser.contentTypeAssociatedFactories.put("application/json", new JsonParseNodeFactory());
+        var response = new ByteArrayInputStream("42".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+        assertEquals(
+                42,
+                parser.getParseNode("application/vnd.example+json; charset=utf-8", response)
+                        .getIntegerValue());
+        var writers = new SerializationWriterFactoryRegistry();
+        writers.contentTypeAssociatedFactories.put(
+                "application/json", new JsonSerializationWriterFactory());
+        try (var writer = writers.getSerializationWriter("application/vnd.example+json")) {
+            writer.writeIntegerValue(null, 42);
+            assertEquals(
+                    "42",
+                    new String(
+                            Compatibility.readAllBytes(writer.getSerializedContent()),
+                            StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+        }
+    }
+}