diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoost.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoost.scala
index a4eb4d81f..8eb9c2400 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoost.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoost.scala
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
 
 import scala.collection.mutable
 
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{IRabitTracker, Rabit, XGBoostError, DMatrix => JDMatrix, RabitTracker => PyRabitTracker}
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{IRabitTracker, Rabit, XGBoostError, RabitTracker => PyRabitTracker}
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.rabit.RabitTracker
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.{XGBoost => SXGBoost, _}
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ object XGBoost extends Serializable {
       rabitEnv.put("DMLC_TASK_ID", TaskContext.getPartitionId().toString)
       Rabit.init(rabitEnv)
       val partitionItr = fromDenseToSparseLabeledPoints(trainingSamples, missing)
-      val trainingMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(partitionItr, cacheFileName))
+      val trainingMatrix = new DMatrix(partitionItr, cacheFileName)
       try {
         if (params.contains("groupData") && params("groupData") != null) {
           trainingMatrix.setGroup(params("groupData").asInstanceOf[Seq[Seq[Int]]](
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ object XGBoost extends Serializable {
   private def overrideParamsAccordingToTaskCPUs(
       params: Map[String, Any],
       sc: SparkContext): Map[String, Any] = {
-    val coresPerTask = sc.getConf.get("spark.task.cpus", "1").toInt
+    val coresPerTask = sc.getConf.getInt("spark.task.cpus", 1)
     var overridedParams = params
     if (overridedParams.contains("nthread")) {
       val nThread = overridedParams("nthread").toString.toInt
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostModel.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostModel.scala
index 95f7fc9ea..c0be87de1 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostModel.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/main/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostModel.scala
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
 
 import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
 
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{Rabit, DMatrix => JDMatrix}
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.Rabit
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark.params.{BoosterParams, DefaultXGBoostParamsWriter}
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.{Booster, DMatrix, EvalTrait}
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FSDataOutputStream, Path}
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ abstract class XGBoostModel(protected var _booster: Booster)
       val rabitEnv = Map("DMLC_TASK_ID" -> TaskContext.getPartitionId().toString)
       Rabit.init(rabitEnv.asJava)
       if (testSamples.nonEmpty) {
-        val dMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(testSamples, null))
+        val dMatrix = new DMatrix(testSamples)
         try {
           broadcastBooster.value.predictLeaf(dMatrix).iterator
         } finally {
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ abstract class XGBoostModel(protected var _booster: Booster)
             null
           }
         }
-        val dMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(testSamples, cacheFileName))
+        val dMatrix = new DMatrix(testSamples, cacheFileName)
         try {
           broadcastBooster.value.predict(dMatrix).iterator
         } finally {
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/PerTest.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/PerTest.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..192fba957
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/PerTest.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+/*
+ Copyright (c) 2014 by Contributors
+
+ Licensed 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 ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
+
+import java.io.File
+
+import org.apache.spark.SparkContext
+import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
+import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfterEach, FunSuite}
+
+trait PerTest extends BeforeAndAfterEach { self: FunSuite =>
+  protected val numWorkers: Int = Runtime.getRuntime.availableProcessors()
+
+  @transient private var currentSession: SparkSession = _
+
+  def ss: SparkSession = getOrCreateSession
+  implicit def sc: SparkContext = ss.sparkContext
+
+  protected def sparkSessionBuilder: SparkSession.Builder = SparkSession.builder()
+      .master("local[*]")
+      .appName("XGBoostSuite")
+      .config("spark.ui.enabled", false)
+      .config("spark.driver.memory", "512m")
+
+  override def beforeEach(): Unit = getOrCreateSession
+
+  override def afterEach() {
+    synchronized {
+      if (currentSession != null) {
+        currentSession.stop()
+        cleanExternalCache(currentSession.sparkContext.appName)
+        currentSession = null
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  private def getOrCreateSession = synchronized {
+    if (currentSession == null) {
+      currentSession = sparkSessionBuilder.getOrCreate()
+      currentSession.sparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")
+    }
+    currentSession
+  }
+
+  private def cleanExternalCache(prefix: String): Unit = {
+    val dir = new File(".")
+    for (file <- dir.listFiles() if file.getName.startsWith(prefix)) {
+      file.delete()
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite.scala
index 2d1dc2711..276eb1ba6 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite.scala
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.{SparkConf, SparkContext}
 import org.scalatest.FunSuite
 
 
-class RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite extends FunSuite with Utils {
+class RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite extends FunSuite with PerTest {
   test("test Java RabitTracker wrapper's exception handling: it should not hang forever.") {
     /*
       Deliberately create new instances of SparkContext in each unit test to avoid reusing the
@@ -33,12 +33,7 @@ class RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite extends FunSuite with Utils {
       tests on a reentrant thread will crash the entire Spark application, an undesired side-effect
       that should be avoided.
      */
-    val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setMaster("local[*]")
-      .setAppName("XGBoostSuite").set("spark.driver.memory", "512m")
-    implicit val sparkContext = new SparkContext(sparkConf)
-    sparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")
-
-    val rdd = sparkContext.parallelize(1 to numWorkers, numWorkers).cache()
+    val rdd = sc.parallelize(1 to numWorkers, numWorkers).cache()
 
     val tracker = new PyRabitTracker(numWorkers)
     tracker.start(0)
@@ -90,16 +85,10 @@ class RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite extends FunSuite with Utils {
     sparkThread.setUncaughtExceptionHandler(tracker)
     sparkThread.start()
     assert(tracker.waitFor(0) != 0)
-    sparkContext.stop()
   }
 
   test("test Scala RabitTracker's exception handling: it should not hang forever.") {
-    val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setMaster("local[*]")
-      .setAppName("XGBoostSuite").set("spark.driver.memory", "512m")
-    implicit val sparkContext = new SparkContext(sparkConf)
-    sparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")
-
-    val rdd = sparkContext.parallelize(1 to numWorkers, numWorkers).cache()
+    val rdd = sc.parallelize(1 to numWorkers, numWorkers).cache()
 
     val tracker = new ScalaRabitTracker(numWorkers)
     tracker.start(0)
@@ -127,16 +116,10 @@ class RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite extends FunSuite with Utils {
     sparkThread.setUncaughtExceptionHandler(tracker)
     sparkThread.start()
     assert(tracker.waitFor(0L) == TrackerStatus.FAILURE.getStatusCode)
-    sparkContext.stop()
   }
 
   test("test Scala RabitTracker's workerConnectionTimeout") {
-    val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setMaster("local[*]")
-      .setAppName("XGBoostSuite").set("spark.driver.memory", "512m")
-    implicit val sparkContext = new SparkContext(sparkConf)
-    sparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")
-
-    val rdd = sparkContext.parallelize(1 to numWorkers, numWorkers).cache()
+    val rdd = sc.parallelize(1 to numWorkers, numWorkers).cache()
 
     val tracker = new ScalaRabitTracker(numWorkers)
     tracker.start(500)
@@ -164,6 +147,5 @@ class RabitTrackerRobustnessSuite extends FunSuite with Utils {
     sparkThread.start()
     // should fail due to connection timeout
     assert(tracker.waitFor(0L) == TrackerStatus.FAILURE.getStatusCode)
-    sparkContext.stop()
   }
 }
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/SharedSparkContext.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/SharedSparkContext.scala
deleted file mode 100644
index 5e46966e1..000000000
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/SharedSparkContext.scala
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
-/*
- Copyright (c) 2014 by Contributors
-
- Licensed 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 ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
-
-import org.apache.spark.{SparkConf, SparkContext}
-import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfter, BeforeAndAfterAll, FunSuite}
-
-trait SharedSparkContext extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter with BeforeAndAfterAll
-  with Serializable {
-
-  @transient protected implicit var sc: SparkContext = _
-
-  override def beforeAll() {
-    val sparkConf = new SparkConf()
-      .setMaster("local[*]")
-      .setAppName("XGBoostSuite")
-      .set("spark.driver.memory", "512m")
-      .set("spark.ui.enabled", "false")
-
-    sc = new SparkContext(sparkConf)
-  }
-
-  override def afterAll() {
-    if (sc != null) {
-      sc.stop()
-      sc = null
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/TrainTestData.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/TrainTestData.scala
index f9488605c..426de99fb 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/TrainTestData.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/TrainTestData.scala
@@ -56,6 +56,25 @@ object Classification extends TrainTestData {
   val test: Seq[MLLabeledPoint] = getLabeledPoints("/agaricus.txt.test", zeroBased = false)
 }
 
+object MultiClassification extends TrainTestData {
+  val train: Seq[MLLabeledPoint] = getLabeledPoints("/dermatology.data")
+
+  private def getLabeledPoints(resource: String): Seq[MLLabeledPoint] = {
+    getResourceLines(resource).map { line =>
+      val featuresAndLabel = line.split(",")
+      val label = featuresAndLabel.last.toDouble - 1
+      val values = new Array[Double](featuresAndLabel.length - 1)
+      values(values.length - 1) =
+          if (featuresAndLabel(featuresAndLabel.length - 2) == "?") 1 else 0
+      for (i <- 0 until values.length - 2) {
+        values(i) = featuresAndLabel(i).toDouble
+      }
+
+      MLLabeledPoint(label, MLVectors.dense(values.take(values.length - 1)))
+    }.toList
+  }
+}
+
 object Regression extends TrainTestData {
   val train: Seq[MLLabeledPoint] = getLabeledPoints("/machine.txt.train", zeroBased = true)
   val test: Seq[MLLabeledPoint] = getLabeledPoints("/machine.txt.test", zeroBased = true)
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/Utils.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/Utils.scala
deleted file mode 100644
index b9d5b0677..000000000
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/Utils.scala
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,30 +0,0 @@
-/*
- Copyright (c) 2014 by Contributors
-
- Licensed 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 ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
-
-import java.io.File
-
-trait Utils extends Serializable {
-  protected val numWorkers: Int = Runtime.getRuntime.availableProcessors()
-
-  protected def cleanExternalCache(prefix: String): Unit = {
-    val dir = new File(".")
-    for (file <- dir.listFiles() if file.getName.startsWith(prefix)) {
-      file.delete()
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostConfigureSuite.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostConfigureSuite.scala
index f98e25b13..6f1d92645 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostConfigureSuite.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostConfigureSuite.scala
@@ -16,43 +16,36 @@
 
 package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
 
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{DMatrix => JDMatrix}
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.{Booster, DMatrix}
-import org.apache.spark.{SparkConf, SparkContext}
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
 import org.scalatest.FunSuite
 
-class XGBoostConfigureSuite extends FunSuite with Utils {
+class XGBoostConfigureSuite extends FunSuite with PerTest {
+  override def sparkSessionBuilder: SparkSession.Builder = super.sparkSessionBuilder
+      .config("spark.serializer", "org.apache.spark.serializer.KryoSerializer")
+      .config("spark.kryo.classesToRegister", classOf[Booster].getName)
 
-  test("nthread configuration must be equal to spark.task.cpus") {
-    val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setMaster("local[*]").setAppName("XGBoostSuite").
-      set("spark.task.cpus", "4")
-    val customSparkContext = new SparkContext(sparkConf)
-    customSparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")
-    // start another app
-    val trainingRDD = customSparkContext.parallelize(Classification.train)
+  test("nthread configuration must be no larger than spark.task.cpus") {
+    val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "2", "silent" -> "1",
-      "objective" -> "binary:logistic", "nthread" -> 6)
+      "objective" -> "binary:logistic",
+      "nthread" -> (sc.getConf.getInt("spark.task.cpus", 1) + 1))
     intercept[IllegalArgumentException] {
       XGBoost.trainWithRDD(trainingRDD, paramMap, 5, numWorkers)
     }
-    customSparkContext.stop()
   }
 
   test("kryoSerializer test") {
-    val eval = new EvalError()
-    val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setMaster("local[*]").setAppName("XGBoostSuite")
-      .set("spark.serializer", "org.apache.spark.serializer.KryoSerializer")
-    sparkConf.registerKryoClasses(Array(classOf[Booster]))
-    val customSparkContext = new SparkContext(sparkConf)
-    customSparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")
-    val trainingRDD = customSparkContext.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    // TODO write an isolated test for Booster.
+    val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "2", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic")
     val xgBoostModel = XGBoost.trainWithRDD(trainingRDD, paramMap, 5, numWorkers)
+    val eval = new EvalError()
     assert(eval.eval(xgBoostModel.booster.predict(testSetDMatrix, outPutMargin = true),
       testSetDMatrix) < 0.1)
-    customSparkContext.stop()
   }
 }
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostDFSuite.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostDFSuite.scala
index 2ea85c2e5..8fb3dbbde 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostDFSuite.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostDFSuite.scala
@@ -16,63 +16,42 @@
 
 package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
 
-import java.io.File
-
-import scala.collection.mutable
-import scala.collection.mutable.ListBuffer
-import scala.io.Source
-import scala.util.Random
-
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{DMatrix => JDMatrix}
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.{DMatrix, XGBoost => ScalaXGBoost}
 
-import org.apache.spark.SparkContext
-import org.apache.spark.ml.Pipeline
-import org.apache.spark.ml.evaluation.RegressionEvaluator
-import org.apache.spark.ml.feature.{LabeledPoint, VectorAssembler}
+import org.apache.spark.ml.feature.{LabeledPoint => MLLabeledPoint}
 import org.apache.spark.ml.linalg.DenseVector
 import org.apache.spark.ml.param.ParamMap
-import org.apache.spark.ml.tuning.{CrossValidator, ParamGridBuilder}
 import org.apache.spark.sql._
+import org.scalatest.FunSuite
 
-class XGBoostDFSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
+class XGBoostDFSuite extends FunSuite with PerTest {
+  private def buildDataFrame(
+      instances: Seq[MLLabeledPoint],
+      numPartitions: Int = numWorkers): DataFrame = {
+    val it = instances.iterator.zipWithIndex
+        .map { case (instance: MLLabeledPoint, id: Int) =>
+          (id, instance.label, instance.features)
+        }
 
-  private var trainingDF: DataFrame = null
-
-  after {
-    cleanExternalCache("XGBoostDFSuite")
-  }
-
-  private def buildTrainingDataframe(sparkContext: Option[SparkContext] = None): DataFrame = {
-    if (trainingDF == null) {
-      val labeledPointsRDD = sparkContext.getOrElse(sc)
-          .parallelize(Classification.train, numWorkers)
-      val sparkSession = SparkSession.builder().appName("XGBoostDFSuite").getOrCreate()
-      import sparkSession.implicits._
-      trainingDF = sparkSession.createDataset(labeledPointsRDD).toDF
-    }
-    trainingDF
+    ss.createDataFrame(sc.parallelize(it.toList, numPartitions))
+        .toDF("id", "label", "features")
   }
 
   test("test consistency and order preservation of dataframe-based model") {
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic")
     val trainingItr = Classification.train.iterator
-    val (testItr, auxTestItr) = Classification.test.iterator.duplicate
+    val testItr = Classification.test.iterator
     import DataUtils._
     val round = 5
-    val trainDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(trainingItr, null))
-    val testDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(testItr, null))
+    val trainDMatrix = new DMatrix(trainingItr)
+    val testDMatrix = new DMatrix(testItr)
     val xgboostModel = ScalaXGBoost.train(trainDMatrix, paramMap, round)
     val predResultFromSeq = xgboostModel.predict(testDMatrix)
-    val testSetItr = auxTestItr.zipWithIndex.map {
-      case (instance: LabeledPoint, id: Int) => (id, instance.features, instance.label)
-    }
-    val trainingDF = buildTrainingDataframe()
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.train)
     val xgBoostModelWithDF = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap,
       round = round, nWorkers = numWorkers)
-    val testDF = trainingDF.sparkSession.createDataFrame(testSetItr.toList).toDF(
-      "id", "features", "label")
+    val testDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.test)
     val predResultsFromDF = xgBoostModelWithDF.setExternalMemory(true).transform(testDF).
       collect().map(row => (row.getAs[Int]("id"), row.getAs[DenseVector]("probabilities"))).toMap
     assert(testDF.count() === predResultsFromDF.size)
@@ -89,78 +68,59 @@ class XGBoostDFSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
   test("test transformLeaf") {
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic")
-    val testItr = Classification.test.iterator
-    val trainingDF = buildTrainingDataframe()
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.train)
     val xgBoostModelWithDF = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap,
       round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers)
-    val testSetItr = testItr.zipWithIndex.map {
-      case (instance: LabeledPoint, id: Int) =>
-        (id, instance.features, instance.label)
-    }
-    val testDF = trainingDF.sparkSession.createDataFrame(testSetItr.toList).toDF(
-      "id", "features", "label")
+    val testDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.test)
     xgBoostModelWithDF.transformLeaf(testDF).show()
   }
 
   test("test schema of XGBoostRegressionModel") {
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "reg:linear")
-    val testItr = Regression.test.iterator.zipWithIndex
-        .map { case (instance: LabeledPoint, id: Int) => (id, instance.features, instance.label) }
-    val trainingDF = {
-      val labeledPointsRDD = sc.parallelize(Regression.train, numWorkers)
-      val sparkSession = SparkSession.builder().appName("XGBoostDFSuite").getOrCreate()
-      import sparkSession.implicits._
-      sparkSession.createDataset(labeledPointsRDD).toDF
-    }
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(Regression.train)
     val xgBoostModelWithDF = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap,
       round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers, useExternalMemory = true)
     xgBoostModelWithDF.setPredictionCol("final_prediction")
-    val testDF = trainingDF.sparkSession.createDataFrame(testItr.toList).toDF(
-      "id", "features", "label")
+    val testDF = buildDataFrame(Regression.test)
     val predictionDF = xgBoostModelWithDF.setExternalMemory(true).transform(testDF)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction") === true)
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction"))
     predictionDF.show()
   }
 
   test("test schema of XGBoostClassificationModel") {
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic")
-    val testItr = Classification.test.iterator.
-      zipWithIndex.map { case (instance: LabeledPoint, id: Int) =>
-      (id, instance.features, instance.label)
-    }
-    val trainingDF = buildTrainingDataframe()
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.train)
     val xgBoostModelWithDF = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap,
       round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers, useExternalMemory = true)
     xgBoostModelWithDF.asInstanceOf[XGBoostClassificationModel].setRawPredictionCol(
       "raw_prediction").setPredictionCol("final_prediction")
-    val testDF = trainingDF.sparkSession.createDataFrame(testItr.toList).toDF(
-      "id", "features", "label")
+    val testDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.test)
     var predictionDF = xgBoostModelWithDF.setExternalMemory(true).transform(testDF)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("raw_prediction") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction") === true)
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("raw_prediction"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction"))
     xgBoostModelWithDF.asInstanceOf[XGBoostClassificationModel].setRawPredictionCol("").
       setPredictionCol("final_prediction")
     predictionDF = xgBoostModelWithDF.transform(testDF)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label") === true)
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label"))
     assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("raw_prediction") === false)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction") === true)
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction"))
     xgBoostModelWithDF.asInstanceOf[XGBoostClassificationModel].
       setRawPredictionCol("raw_prediction").setPredictionCol("")
     predictionDF = xgBoostModelWithDF.transform(testDF)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label") === true)
-    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("raw_prediction") === true)
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("id"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("features"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("label"))
+    assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("raw_prediction"))
     assert(predictionDF.columns.contains("final_prediction") === false)
   }
 
@@ -193,69 +153,33 @@ class XGBoostDFSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
       "grow_policy" -> "depthwise", "max_depth" -> "2", "max_bin" -> "2",
       "eval_metric" -> "error")
     val testItr = Classification.test.iterator
-    val trainingDF = buildTrainingDataframe()
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(Classification.train)
     val xgBoostModelWithDF = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap,
       round = 10, nWorkers = math.min(2, numWorkers))
     val error = new EvalError
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(testItr, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(testItr)
     assert(error.eval(xgBoostModelWithDF.booster.predict(testSetDMatrix, outPutMargin = true),
       testSetDMatrix) < 0.1)
   }
 
-  private def convertCSVPointToLabelPoint(valueArray: Array[String]): LabeledPoint = {
-    val intValueArray = new Array[Double](valueArray.length)
-    intValueArray(valueArray.length - 2) = {
-      if (valueArray(valueArray.length - 2) == "?") {
-        1
-      } else {
-        0
-      }
-    }
-    intValueArray(valueArray.length - 1) = valueArray(valueArray.length - 1).toDouble - 1
-    for (i <- 0 until intValueArray.length - 2) {
-      intValueArray(i) = valueArray(i).toDouble
-    }
-    LabeledPoint(intValueArray.last, new DenseVector(intValueArray.take(intValueArray.length - 1)))
-  }
-
-  private def loadCSVPoints(filePath: String, zeroBased: Boolean = false): Seq[LabeledPoint] = {
-    val file = Source.fromFile(new File(filePath))
-    val sampleList = new ListBuffer[LabeledPoint]
-    for (sample <- file.getLines()) {
-      sampleList += convertCSVPointToLabelPoint(sample.split(","))
-    }
-    sampleList
-  }
-
   test("multi_class classification test") {
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "0.1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "multi:softmax", "num_class" -> "6")
-    val trainingSet = loadCSVPoints(getClass.getResource("/dermatology.data").getFile)
-    val spark = SparkSession.builder().getOrCreate()
-    import spark.implicits._
-    XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingSet.toDF(), paramMap, round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers)
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(MultiClassification.train)
+    XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF.toDF(), paramMap, round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers)
   }
 
   test("test DF use nested groupData") {
-    val testItr = Ranking.test.iterator.zipWithIndex
-        .map { case (instance: LabeledPoint, id: Int) => (id, instance.features, instance.label) }
-    val trainingDF = {
-      val labeledPointsRDD0 = sc.parallelize(Ranking.train0, numSlices = 1)
-      val labeledPointsRDD1 = sc.parallelize(Ranking.train1, numSlices = 1)
-      val labeledPointsRDD = labeledPointsRDD0.union(labeledPointsRDD1)
-      val sparkSession = SparkSession.builder().appName("XGBoostDFSuite").getOrCreate()
-      import sparkSession.implicits._
-      sparkSession.createDataset(labeledPointsRDD).toDF
-    }
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(Ranking.train0, 1)
+        .union(buildDataFrame(Ranking.train1, 1))
     val trainGroupData: Seq[Seq[Int]] = Seq(Ranking.trainGroup0, Ranking.trainGroup1)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "rank:pairwise", "groupData" -> trainGroupData)
 
     val xgBoostModelWithDF = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap,
       round = 5, nWorkers = 2)
-    val testDF = trainingDF.sparkSession.createDataFrame(testItr.toList).toDF(
-      "id", "features", "label")
+    val testDF = buildDataFrame(Ranking.test)
     val predResultsFromDF = xgBoostModelWithDF.setExternalMemory(true).transform(testDF).
       collect().map(row => (row.getAs[Int]("id"), row.getAs[DenseVector]("features"))).toMap
     assert(testDF.count() === predResultsFromDF.size)
@@ -264,11 +188,8 @@ class XGBoostDFSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
   test("params of estimator and produced model are coordinated correctly") {
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "0.1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "multi:softmax", "num_class" -> "6")
-    val trainingSet = loadCSVPoints(getClass.getResource("/dermatology.data").getFile)
-    val spark = SparkSession.builder().getOrCreate()
-    import spark.implicits._
-    val model =
-      XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingSet.toDF(), paramMap, round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers)
+    val trainingDF = buildDataFrame(MultiClassification.train)
+    val model = XGBoost.trainWithDataFrame(trainingDF, paramMap, round = 5, nWorkers = numWorkers)
     assert(model.get[Double](model.eta).get == 0.1)
     assert(model.get[Int](model.maxDepth).get == 6)
   }
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostGeneralSuite.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostGeneralSuite.scala
index b9d40b5e7..fbe8a9c85 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostGeneralSuite.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostGeneralSuite.scala
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingDeque
 import scala.collection.mutable.ListBuffer
 import scala.util.Random
 
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{Rabit, DMatrix => JDMatrix}
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.Rabit
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.DMatrix
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.rabit.RabitTracker
 
@@ -30,8 +30,9 @@ import org.apache.spark.SparkContext
 import org.apache.spark.ml.feature.LabeledPoint
 import org.apache.spark.ml.linalg.{Vectors, Vector => SparkVector}
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
+import org.scalatest.FunSuite
 
-class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
+class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends FunSuite with PerTest {
   test("test Rabit allreduce to validate Scala-implemented Rabit tracker") {
     val vectorLength = 100
     val rdd = sc.parallelize(
@@ -84,29 +85,26 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
       missing = Float.NaN, baseMargin = null)
     val boosterCount = boosterRDD.count()
     assert(boosterCount === 2)
-    cleanExternalCache("XGBoostSuite")
   }
 
   test("training with external memory cache") {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = List("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic").toMap
     val xgBoostModel = XGBoost.trainWithRDD(trainingRDD, paramMap, round = 5,
       nWorkers = numWorkers, useExternalMemory = true)
     assert(eval.eval(xgBoostModel.booster.predict(testSetDMatrix, outPutMargin = true),
       testSetDMatrix) < 0.1)
-    // clean
-    cleanExternalCache("XGBoostSuite")
   }
 
   test("training with Scala-implemented Rabit tracker") {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = List("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic",
       "tracker_conf" -> TrackerConf(60 * 60 * 1000, "scala")).toMap
@@ -120,7 +118,7 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "gamma" -> "0.5", "max_depth" -> "6", "silent" -> "1",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic", "tree_method" -> "hist",
       "grow_policy" -> "depthwise", "eval_metric" -> "error")
@@ -135,7 +133,7 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "gamma" -> "0.5", "max_depth" -> "0", "silent" -> "1",
             "objective" -> "binary:logistic", "tree_method" -> "hist",
             "grow_policy" -> "lossguide", "max_leaves" -> "8", "eval_metric" -> "error")
@@ -150,7 +148,7 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "gamma" -> "0.5", "max_depth" -> "0", "silent" -> "0",
             "objective" -> "binary:logistic", "tree_method" -> "hist",
             "grow_policy" -> "lossguide", "max_leaves" -> "8", "max_bin" -> "16",
@@ -166,7 +164,7 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "gamma" -> "0.5", "max_depth" -> "0", "silent" -> "0",
       "objective" -> "binary:logistic", "tree_method" -> "hist",
       "grow_policy" -> "depthwise", "max_leaves" -> "8", "max_depth" -> "2",
@@ -182,7 +180,7 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "gamma" -> "0.5", "max_depth" -> "0", "silent" -> "0",
             "objective" -> "binary:logistic", "tree_method" -> "hist",
             "grow_policy" -> "depthwise", "max_depth" -> "2", "max_bin" -> "2",
@@ -196,29 +194,19 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
 
   test("test with dense vectors containing missing value") {
     def buildDenseRDD(): RDD[LabeledPoint] = {
-      val nrow = 100
-      val ncol = 5
-      val data0 = Array.ofDim[Double](nrow, ncol)
-      // put random nums
-      for (r <- 0 until nrow; c <- 0 until ncol) {
-        data0(r)(c) = {
-          if (c == ncol - 1) {
-            -0.1
-          } else {
-            Random.nextDouble()
-          }
+      val numRows = 100
+      val numCols = 5
+
+      val labeledPoints = (0 until numRows).map { _ =>
+        val label = Random.nextDouble()
+        val values = Array.tabulate[Double](numCols) { c =>
+          if (c == numCols - 1) -0.1 else Random.nextDouble()
         }
+
+        LabeledPoint(label, Vectors.dense(values))
       }
-      // create label
-      val label0 = new Array[Double](nrow)
-      for (i <- label0.indices) {
-        label0(i) = Random.nextDouble()
-      }
-      val points = new ListBuffer[LabeledPoint]
-      for (r <- 0 until nrow) {
-        points += LabeledPoint(label0(r), Vectors.dense(data0(r)))
-      }
-      sc.parallelize(points)
+
+      sc.parallelize(labeledPoints)
     }
 
     val trainingRDD = buildDenseRDD().repartition(4)
@@ -228,8 +216,6 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val xgBoostModel = XGBoost.trainWithRDD(trainingRDD, paramMap, 5, numWorkers,
       useExternalMemory = true)
     xgBoostModel.predict(testRDD.map(_.features.toDense), missingValue = -0.1f).collect()
-    // clean
-    cleanExternalCache("XGBoostSuite")
   }
 
   test("test consistency of prediction functions with RDD") {
@@ -280,7 +266,7 @@ class XGBoostGeneralSuite extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
     val eval = new EvalError()
     val trainingRDD = sc.parallelize(Classification.train)
     import DataUtils._
-    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(Classification.test.iterator, null))
+    val testSetDMatrix = new DMatrix(Classification.test.iterator)
     val tempDir = Files.createTempDirectory("xgboosttest-")
     val tempFile = Files.createTempFile(tempDir, "", "")
     val paramMap = Map("eta" -> "1", "max_depth" -> "2", "silent" -> "1",
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostSparkPipelinePersistence.scala b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostSparkPipelinePersistence.scala
index 5d0a0c755..031a68271 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostSparkPipelinePersistence.scala
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j-spark/src/test/scala/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/scala/spark/XGBoostSparkPipelinePersistence.scala
@@ -24,11 +24,12 @@ import org.apache.spark.SparkConf
 import org.apache.spark.ml.feature._
 import org.apache.spark.ml.{Pipeline, PipelineModel}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
+import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfterAll, FunSuite}
 
-class XGBoostSparkPipelinePersistence extends SharedSparkContext with Utils {
+class XGBoostSparkPipelinePersistence extends FunSuite with PerTest
+    with BeforeAndAfterAll {
 
   override def afterAll(): Unit = {
-    super.afterAll()
     delete(new File("./testxgbPipe"))
     delete(new File("./testxgbEst"))
     delete(new File("./testxgbModel"))