diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala
index 1cfe98673773..0f565f23a118 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/DAGScheduler.scala
@@ -483,6 +483,20 @@ class DAGScheduler(
     assert(partitions.size > 0)
     val func2 = func.asInstanceOf[(TaskContext, Iterator[_]) => _]
     val waiter = new JobWaiter(this, jobId, partitions.size, resultHandler)
+
+    // The reason for performing this call here is that computing the partitions
+    // may be very expensive for certain types of RDDs (e.g. HadoopRDDs), so therefore
+    // we'd like that computation to take place outside of the DAGScheduler to avoid
+    // blocking its event processing loop. See SPARK-4961 for details.
+    try {
+      getParentStages(rdd, jobId).foreach(_.rdd.partitions)
+    } catch {
+      case e: Exception =>
+        logWarning("Get the partitions of parent stages' rdds failed due to exception - job: "
+                   + jobId, e)
+        waiter.jobFailed(e)
+        return waiter
+    }
     eventProcessLoop.post(JobSubmitted(
       jobId, rdd, func2, partitions.toArray, allowLocal, callSite, waiter, properties))
     waiter