diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
index 3cdc009..83e1c61 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
@@ -395,6 +395,10 @@
 Changes in the Python API
 -------------------------
 
+* :meth:`pkgutil.walk_packages` now raises ValueError if *path* is a string.
+  Previously an empty list was returned. (Contributed by Sanyam Khurana in
+  :issue:`24744`.)
+
 * A format string argument for :meth:`string.Formatter.format`
   is now :ref:`positional-only <positional-only_parameter>`.
   Passing it as a keyword argument was deprecated in Python 3.5. (Contributed
diff --git a/Lib/pkgutil.py b/Lib/pkgutil.py
index e37ad45..9180eae 100644
--- a/Lib/pkgutil.py
+++ b/Lib/pkgutil.py
@@ -119,6 +119,9 @@
     """
     if path is None:
         importers = iter_importers()
+    elif isinstance(path, str):
+        raise ValueError("path must be None or list of paths to look for "
+                        "modules in")
     else:
         importers = map(get_importer, path)
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_pkgutil.py b/Lib/test/test_pkgutil.py
index fc04dcf..2887ce6 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_pkgutil.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pkgutil.py
@@ -176,6 +176,15 @@
                 continue
             del sys.modules[pkg]
 
+    def test_walk_packages_raises_on_string_or_bytes_input(self):
+
+        str_input = 'test_dir'
+        with self.assertRaises((TypeError, ValueError)):
+            list(pkgutil.walk_packages(str_input))
+
+        bytes_input = b'test_dir'
+        with self.assertRaises((TypeError, ValueError)):
+            list(pkgutil.walk_packages(bytes_input))
 
 
 class PkgutilPEP302Tests(unittest.TestCase):
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f91695d..31e8ec0 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -362,6 +362,9 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- bpo-24744: pkgutil.walk_packages function now raises ValueError if *path*
+  is a string. Patch by Sanyam Khurana.
+
 - bpo-24484: Avoid race condition in multiprocessing cleanup.
 
 - bpo-30589: Fix multiprocessing.Process.exitcode to return the opposite