A system and method for programming a timer in a virtualized system are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, a virtual machine executed by a processing device detects a need to request an interrupt at a first time and reads, from the first memory location, a second time that is associated with a next interrupt of the physical host machine scheduled by a hypervisor executed by the processing device. The virtual machine determines whether the first time is less than the second time. Responsive to the first time being less than the second time, the virtual machine transfers execution control to the hypervisor. Responsive to the first time not being less than the second time, the virtual machine stores the first time in a second memory location that is writeable by the virtual machine.