diff --git a/external/kafka/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaTestUtils.scala b/external/kafka/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaTestUtils.scala
index 104f772fd76bb..b11a73317163a 100644
--- a/external/kafka/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaTestUtils.scala
+++ b/external/kafka/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaTestUtils.scala
@@ -231,11 +231,11 @@ private class KafkaTestUtils extends Logging {
 
   /** wait until the leader offset for the given topic / partition equals the specified offset */
   def waitUntilLeaderOffset(
-      kc: KafkaCluster,
       topic: String,
       partition: Int,
       offset: Long): Unit = {
     eventually(Time(10000), Time(100)) {
+      val kc = new KafkaCluster(Map("metadata.broker.list" -> brokerAddress))
       val tp = TopicAndPartition(topic, partition)
       val llo = kc.getLatestLeaderOffsets(Set(tp)).right.get.apply(tp).offset
       assert(
diff --git a/external/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/JavaKafkaRDDSuite.java b/external/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/JavaKafkaRDDSuite.java
index d0b137a11b1d0..5cf379635354f 100644
--- a/external/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/JavaKafkaRDDSuite.java
+++ b/external/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/JavaKafkaRDDSuite.java
@@ -72,9 +72,8 @@ public void testKafkaRDD() throws InterruptedException {
     HashMap<String, String> kafkaParams = new HashMap<String, String>();
     kafkaParams.put("metadata.broker.list", kafkaTestUtils.brokerAddress());
 
-    KafkaCluster kc = new KafkaCluster(kafkaParams);
-    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(kc, topic1, 0, topic1data.length);
-    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(kc, topic2, 0, topic2data.length);
+    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic1, 0, topic1data.length);
+    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic2, 0, topic2data.length);
 
     OffsetRange[] offsetRanges = {
       OffsetRange.create(topic1, 0, 0, 1),
diff --git a/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaRDDSuite.scala b/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaRDDSuite.scala
index 996da660b927a..fbaed25ac2176 100644
--- a/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaRDDSuite.scala
+++ b/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaRDDSuite.scala
@@ -61,8 +61,7 @@ class KafkaRDDSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfterAll {
     val kafkaParams = Map("metadata.broker.list" -> kafkaTestUtils.brokerAddress,
       "group.id" -> s"test-consumer-${Random.nextInt}")
 
-    val kc = new KafkaCluster(kafkaParams)
-    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(kc, topic, 0, messages.size)
+    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic, 0, messages.size)
 
     val offsetRanges = Array(OffsetRange(topic, 0, 0, messages.size))
 
@@ -87,7 +86,7 @@ class KafkaRDDSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfterAll {
     // this is the "lots of messages" case
     kafkaTestUtils.sendMessages(topic, sent)
     val sentCount = sent.values.sum
-    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(kc, topic, 0, sentCount)
+    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic, 0, sentCount)
 
     // rdd defined from leaders after sending messages, should get the number sent
     val rdd = getRdd(kc, Set(topic))
@@ -113,7 +112,7 @@ class KafkaRDDSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfterAll {
     val sentOnlyOne = Map("d" -> 1)
 
     kafkaTestUtils.sendMessages(topic, sentOnlyOne)
-    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(kc, topic, 0, sentCount + 1)
+    kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic, 0, sentCount + 1)
 
     assert(rdd2.isDefined)
     assert(rdd2.get.count === 0, "got messages when there shouldn't be any")
diff --git a/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py b/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py
index ee1ede11cf243..5f18e1dbb922c 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ def test_kafka_stream(self):
 
         self._kafkaTestUtils.createTopic(topic)
         self._kafkaTestUtils.sendMessages(topic, sendData)
-        time.sleep(5)
+        self._kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic, 0, sum(sendData.values()))
 
         stream = KafkaUtils.createStream(self.ssc, self._kafkaTestUtils.zkAddress(),
                                          "test-streaming-consumer", {topic: 1},
@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ def test_kafka_rdd(self):
 
         self._kafkaTestUtils.createTopic(topic)
         self._kafkaTestUtils.sendMessages(topic, sendData)
-        time.sleep(5)
+        self._kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic, 0, sum(sendData.values()))
         rdd = KafkaUtils.createRDD(self.sc, kafkaParams, offsetRanges)
         self._validateRddResult(sendData, rdd)
 
@@ -675,7 +675,7 @@ def test_kafka_rdd_with_leaders(self):
 
         self._kafkaTestUtils.createTopic(topic)
         self._kafkaTestUtils.sendMessages(topic, sendData)
-        time.sleep(5)
+        self._kafkaTestUtils.waitUntilLeaderOffset(topic, 0, sum(sendData.values()))
         rdd = KafkaUtils.createRDD(self.sc, kafkaParams, offsetRanges, leaders)
         self._validateRddResult(sendData, rdd)