diff --git a/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala b/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala
index fc925022b271..ca6a3ef3ebbb 100644
--- a/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/yarn/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/yarn/ApplicationMaster.scala
@@ -90,6 +90,9 @@ private[spark] class ApplicationMaster(
   @volatile private var reporterThread: Thread = _
   @volatile private var allocator: YarnAllocator = _
 
+  // A flag to check whether user has initialized spark context
+  @volatile private var registered = false
+
   private val userClassLoader = {
     val classpath = Client.getUserClasspath(sparkConf)
     val urls = classpath.map { entry =>
@@ -319,7 +322,7 @@ private[spark] class ApplicationMaster(
    */
   final def unregister(status: FinalApplicationStatus, diagnostics: String = null): Unit = {
     synchronized {
-      if (!unregistered) {
+      if (registered && !unregistered) {
         logInfo(s"Unregistering ApplicationMaster with $status" +
           Option(diagnostics).map(msg => s" (diag message: $msg)").getOrElse(""))
         unregistered = true
@@ -332,10 +335,15 @@ private[spark] class ApplicationMaster(
     synchronized {
       if (!finished) {
         val inShutdown = ShutdownHookManager.inShutdown()
-        logInfo(s"Final app status: $status, exitCode: $code" +
+        if (registered) {
+          exitCode = code
+          finalStatus = status
+        } else {
+          finalStatus = FinalApplicationStatus.FAILED
+          exitCode = ApplicationMaster.EXIT_SC_NOT_INITED
+        }
+        logInfo(s"Final app status: $finalStatus, exitCode: $exitCode" +
           Option(msg).map(msg => s", (reason: $msg)").getOrElse(""))
-        exitCode = code
-        finalStatus = status
         finalMsg = msg
         finished = true
         if (!inShutdown && Thread.currentThread() != reporterThread && reporterThread != null) {
@@ -439,12 +447,11 @@ private[spark] class ApplicationMaster(
           sc.getConf.get("spark.driver.port"),
           isClusterMode = true)
         registerAM(sc.getConf, rpcEnv, driverRef, sc.ui.map(_.webUrl), securityMgr)
+        registered = true
       } else {
         // Sanity check; should never happen in normal operation, since sc should only be null
         // if the user app did not create a SparkContext.
-        if (!finished) {
-          throw new IllegalStateException("SparkContext is null but app is still running!")
-        }
+        throw new IllegalStateException("User did not initialize spark context!")
       }
       userClassThread.join()
     } catch {