diff --git a/examples/server/bench/bench.py b/examples/server/bench/bench.py
index 25ac29c4c..86c5de101 100644
--- a/examples/server/bench/bench.py
+++ b/examples/server/bench/bench.py
@@ -293,14 +293,13 @@ def start_server_background(args):
 
 
 def is_server_listening(server_fqdn, server_port):
-    try:
-        url = f"{server_fqdn}:{server_port}/health"
-        if not url.startswith("http://"):
-            url = f"http://{url}"
-        result = requests.get(url)
-        return result.status_code == 200
-    except Exception:
-        return False
+    with closing(socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)) as sock:
+        result = sock.connect_ex((server_fqdn, server_port))
+        _is_server_listening = result == 0
+        if _is_server_listening:
+            print(f"server is listening on {server_fqdn}:{server_port}...")
+        return _is_server_listening
+
 
 def escape_metric_name(metric_name):
     return re.sub('[^A-Z0-9]', '_', metric_name.upper())