  We study in detail the impact of a light sterile neutrino in the
interpretation of the latest data of the long baseline experiments NO$\nu$A and
T2K, assessing the robustness/fragility of the estimates of the standard
3-flavor parameters with respect to the perturbations induced in the 3+1
scheme. We find that all the basic features of the 3-flavor analysis, including
the weak indication ($\sim$1.4$\sigma$) in favor of the inverted neutrino mass
ordering, the preference for values of the CP-phase $\delta_{13} \sim 1.2\pi$,
and the substantial degeneracy of the two octants of $\theta_{23}$, all remain
basically unaltered in the 4-flavor scheme. Our analysis also demonstrates that
it is possible to attain some constraints on the new CP-phase $\delta_{14}$.
Finally, we point out that, differently from non-standard neutrino
interactions, light sterile neutrinos are not capable to alleviate the tension
recently emerged between NO$\nu$A and T2K in the appearance channel.
