diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
index a9b905b0d1a63..a13f71fd4de01 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
@@ -207,6 +207,21 @@ abstract class RDD[T: ClassTag](
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Get the number of partitions in this RDD
+   *
+   * {{{
+   * scala> val rdd = sc.parallelize(1 to 4, 2)
+   * rdd: org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD[Int] = ParallelCollectionRDD[1] at parallelize at <console>:12
+   *
+   * scala> rdd.getNumPartitions
+   * res1: Int = 2
+   * }}}
+   *
+   * @return The number of partitions in this RDD
+   */
+  def getNumPartitions: Int = partitions.size
+
   /**
    * Get the preferred locations of a partition (as hostnames), taking into account whether the
    * RDD is checkpointed.
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala
index c1b501a75c8b8..dba45996be7f9 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ class RDDSuite extends FunSuite with SharedSparkContext {
 
   test("basic operations") {
     val nums = sc.makeRDD(Array(1, 2, 3, 4), 2)
+    assert(nums.getNumPartitions === 2)
     assert(nums.collect().toList === List(1, 2, 3, 4))
     assert(nums.toLocalIterator.toList === List(1, 2, 3, 4))
     val dups = sc.makeRDD(Array(1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4), 2)