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 5903bd2c9..a9e771ae7 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
@@ -16,20 +16,16 @@
 
 package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.spark
 
-import java.nio.file.Paths
-
-import scala.collection.mutable
 import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
+import scala.collection.mutable
 
-import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{Path, FileSystem}
-
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{DMatrix => JDMatrix, Rabit, RabitTracker, XGBoostError}
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.{XGBoost => SXGBoost, _}
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory
-import org.apache.spark.{SparkContext, TaskContext}
+import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.regression.LabeledPoint
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
-
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.{DMatrix => JDMatrix, XGBoostError, Rabit, RabitTracker}
-import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.scala.{XGBoost => SXGBoost, _}
+import org.apache.spark.{SparkContext, TaskContext}
 
 object XGBoost extends Serializable {
   private val logger = LogFactory.getLog("XGBoostSpark")
@@ -58,22 +54,33 @@ object XGBoost extends Serializable {
       }
     }
     val appName = partitionedData.context.appName
+    // to workaround the empty partitions in training dataset,
+    // this might not be the best efficient implementation, see
+    // (https://github.com/dmlc/xgboost/issues/1277)
     partitionedData.mapPartitions {
       trainingSamples =>
         rabitEnv.put("DMLC_TASK_ID", TaskContext.getPartitionId().toString)
         Rabit.init(rabitEnv.asJava)
-        val cacheFileName: String = {
-          if (useExternalMemory && trainingSamples.hasNext) {
-            s"$appName-dtrain_cache-${TaskContext.getPartitionId()}"
-          } else {
-            null
+        var booster: Booster = null
+        if (trainingSamples.hasNext) {
+          val cacheFileName: String = {
+            if (useExternalMemory && trainingSamples.hasNext) {
+              s"$appName-dtrain_cache-${TaskContext.getPartitionId()}"
+            } else {
+              null
+            }
           }
+          val trainingSet = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(trainingSamples, cacheFileName))
+          booster = SXGBoost.train(trainingSet, xgBoostConfMap, round,
+            watches = new mutable.HashMap[String, DMatrix] {
+              put("train", trainingSet)
+            }.toMap, obj, eval)
+          Rabit.shutdown()
+        } else {
+          Rabit.shutdown()
+          throw new XGBoostError(s"detect the empty partition in training dataset, partition ID:" +
+            s" ${TaskContext.getPartitionId().toString}")
         }
-        val trainingSet = new DMatrix(new JDMatrix(trainingSamples, cacheFileName))
-        val booster = SXGBoost.train(trainingSet, xgBoostConfMap, round,
-          watches = new mutable.HashMap[String, DMatrix]{put("train", trainingSet)}.toMap,
-            obj, eval)
-        Rabit.shutdown()
         Iterator(booster)
     }.cache()
   }