diff --git a/verl/utils/dataset/sft_dataset.py b/verl/utils/dataset/sft_dataset.py
index 9c7a2966..83117b8b 100644
--- a/verl/utils/dataset/sft_dataset.py
+++ b/verl/utils/dataset/sft_dataset.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ def __init__(self,
                  prompt_dict_keys=None,
                  response_key='response',
                  response_dict_keys=None,
+                 filter_data=True,
                  max_length=1024,
                  truncation='error'):
         assert truncation in ['error', 'left', 'right']
@@ -56,11 +57,12 @@ def __init__(self,
             tokenizer = hf_tokenizer(tokenizer)
         self.tokenizer: PreTrainedTokenizer = tokenizer
 
-        self.prompt_key = prompt_key if isinstance(prompt_key, (tuple, list)) else [prompt_key]
-        self.response_key = response_key if isinstance(response_key, (tuple, list)) else [response_key]
+        self.prompt_key = prompt_key[0] if isinstance(prompt_key, (tuple, list)) else prompt_key
+        self.response_key = response_key[0] if isinstance(response_key, (tuple, list)) else response_key
         self.prompt_dict_keys = [] if not prompt_dict_keys else prompt_dict_keys
         self.response_dict_keys = [] if not response_dict_keys else response_dict_keys
 
+        self.filter_data = filter_data
         self.max_length = max_length
 
         self._download()
@@ -84,6 +86,7 @@ def series_to_item(ls):
             dataframe = pd.read_parquet(parquet_file)
             dataframes.append(dataframe)
         self.dataframe = pd.concat(dataframes)
+
         self.prompts = self.dataframe[self.prompt_key]
         for key in self.prompt_dict_keys:
             # type(x): pandas.core.series.Series
@@ -94,7 +97,7 @@ def series_to_item(ls):
             except Exception:
                 print(f'self.prompts={self.prompts}')
                 raise
-        self.prompts = self.prompts.tolist()
+
         self.responses = self.dataframe[self.response_key]
         for key in self.response_dict_keys:
             try:
@@ -102,7 +105,17 @@ def series_to_item(ls):
             except Exception:
                 print(f'self.responses={self.responses}')
                 raise
-        self.responses = self.responses.tolist()
+
+        if self.filter_data:
+            self.dataframe = pd.DataFrame({self.prompts.name: self.prompts, self.responses.name: self.responses})
+            self.dataframe = self.dataframe[self.dataframe.apply(lambda doc: len(
+                self.tokenizer.apply_chat_template([{'role': 'user', 'content': doc[self.prompts.name]},{'role': 'assistant', 'content': doc[self.responses.name]}], add_generation_prompt=True)) <= self.max_length,
+                                                                axis=1)]
+            self.prompts = self.dataframe[self.prompts.name].tolist()                
+            self.responses = self.dataframe[self.responses.name].tolist()
+        else:              
+            self.prompts = self.prompts.tolist()                
+            self.responses = self.responses.tolist()
 
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.prompts)