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
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..a007c0bff8f97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/external/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/JavaKafkaRDDSuite.java
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.streaming.kafka;
+
+import java.io.Serializable;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+
+import org.apache.spark.SparkConf;
+
+import scala.Tuple2;
+
+import junit.framework.Assert;
+
+import kafka.common.TopicAndPartition;
+import kafka.message.MessageAndMetadata;
+import kafka.serializer.StringDecoder;
+
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaRDD;
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.Function;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+
+public class JavaKafkaRDDSuite implements Serializable {
+  private transient JavaSparkContext sc = null;
+  private transient KafkaStreamSuiteBase suiteBase = null;
+
+  @Before
+  public void setUp() {
+    suiteBase = new KafkaStreamSuiteBase() { };
+    suiteBase.setupKafka();
+    System.clearProperty("spark.driver.port");
+    SparkConf sparkConf = new SparkConf()
+      .setMaster("local[4]").setAppName(this.getClass().getSimpleName());
+    sc = new JavaSparkContext(sparkConf);
+  }
+
+  @After
+  public void tearDown() {
+    sc.stop();
+    sc = null;
+    System.clearProperty("spark.driver.port");
+    suiteBase.tearDownKafka();
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testKafkaRDD() throws InterruptedException {
+    String topic1 = "topic1";
+    String topic2 = "topic2";
+
+    String[] topic1data = createTopicAndSendData(topic1);
+    String[] topic2data = createTopicAndSendData(topic2);
+
+    HashMap<String, String> kafkaParams = new HashMap<String, String>();
+    kafkaParams.put("metadata.broker.list", suiteBase.brokerAddress());
+
+    OffsetRange[] offsetRanges = {
+      OffsetRange.create(topic1, 0, 0, 1),
+      OffsetRange.create(topic2, 0, 0, 1)
+    };
+
+    HashMap<TopicAndPartition, Broker> emptyLeaders = new HashMap();
+    HashMap<TopicAndPartition, Broker> leaders = new HashMap();
+    Broker broker = Broker.create(suiteBase.brokerHost(), suiteBase.brokerPort());
+    leaders.put(new TopicAndPartition(topic1, 0), broker);
+    leaders.put(new TopicAndPartition(topic2, 0), broker);
+
+    JavaRDD<String> rdd1 = KafkaUtils.createRDD(
+        sc,
+        String.class,
+        String.class,
+        StringDecoder.class,
+        StringDecoder.class,
+        kafkaParams,
+        offsetRanges
+    ).map(
+        new Function<Tuple2<String, String>, String>() {
+          @Override
+          public String call(scala.Tuple2<String, String> kv) throws Exception {
+            return kv._2();
+          }
+        }
+    );
+
+    JavaRDD<String> rdd2 = KafkaUtils.createRDD(
+        sc,
+        String.class,
+        String.class,
+        StringDecoder.class,
+        StringDecoder.class,
+        String.class,
+        kafkaParams,
+        offsetRanges,
+        emptyLeaders,
+        new Function<MessageAndMetadata<String, String>, String>() {
+          @Override
+          public String call(MessageAndMetadata<String, String> msgAndMd) throws Exception {
+            return msgAndMd.message();
+          }
+        }
+    );
+
+    JavaRDD<String> rdd3 = KafkaUtils.createRDD(
+        sc,
+        String.class,
+        String.class,
+        StringDecoder.class,
+        StringDecoder.class,
+        String.class,
+        kafkaParams,
+        offsetRanges,
+        leaders,
+        new Function<MessageAndMetadata<String, String>, String>() {
+          @Override
+          public String call(MessageAndMetadata<String, String> msgAndMd) throws Exception {
+            return msgAndMd.message();
+          }
+        }
+    );
+
+    // just making sure the java user apis work; the scala tests handle logic corner cases
+    long count1 = rdd1.count();
+    long count2 = rdd2.count();
+    long count3 = rdd3.count();
+    Assert.assertTrue(count1 > 0);
+    Assert.assertEquals(count1, count2);
+    Assert.assertEquals(count1, count3);
+  }
+
+  private  String[] createTopicAndSendData(String topic) {
+    String[] data = { topic + "-1", topic + "-2", topic + "-3"};
+    suiteBase.createTopic(topic);
+    suiteBase.sendMessages(topic, data);
+    return data;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaStreamSuite.scala b/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaStreamSuite.scala
index e4966eebb9b34..afaf8f16c5d07 100644
--- a/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaStreamSuite.scala
+++ b/external/kafka/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/kafka/KafkaStreamSuite.scala
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ abstract class KafkaStreamSuiteBase extends FunSuite with Eventually with Loggin
   private val zkConnectionTimeout = 6000
   private val zkSessionTimeout = 6000
   private var zookeeper: EmbeddedZookeeper = _
-  private val brokerHost = "localhost"
-  private var brokerPort = 9092
+  protected val brokerHost = "localhost"
+  protected var brokerPort = 9092
   private var brokerConf: KafkaConfig = _
   private var server: KafkaServer = _
   private var producer: Producer[String, String] = _