diff --git a/docs/running-on-kubernetes.md b/docs/running-on-kubernetes.md
index 975b28de47e2..9c4644947c91 100644
--- a/docs/running-on-kubernetes.md
+++ b/docs/running-on-kubernetes.md
@@ -549,14 +549,23 @@ specific to Spark on Kubernetes.
   <td><code>spark.kubernetes.driver.limit.cores</code></td>
   <td>(none)</td>
   <td>
-    Specify the hard CPU [limit](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-compute-resources-container/#resource-requests-and-limits-of-pod-and-container) for the driver pod.
+    Specify a hard cpu [limit](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-compute-resources-container/#resource-requests-and-limits-of-pod-and-container) for the driver pod.
   </td>
 </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><code>spark.kubernetes.executor.request.cores</code></td>
+  <td>(none)</td>
+  <td>
+    Specify the cpu request for each executor pod. Values conform to the Kubernetes [convention](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-compute-resources-container/#meaning-of-cpu). 
+    Example values include 0.1, 500m, 1.5, 5, etc., with the definition of cpu units documented in [CPU units](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/assign-cpu-resource/#cpu-units).   
+    This is distinct from <code>spark.executor.cores</code>: it is only used and takes precedence over <code>spark.executor.cores</code> for specifying the executor pod cpu request if set. Task 
+    parallelism, e.g., number of tasks an executor can run concurrently is not affected by this.
+</tr>
 <tr>
   <td><code>spark.kubernetes.executor.limit.cores</code></td>
   <td>(none)</td>
   <td>
-    Specify the hard CPU [limit](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-compute-resources-container/#resource-requests-and-limits-of-pod-and-container) for each executor pod launched for the Spark Application.
+    Specify a hard cpu [limit](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/manage-compute-resources-container/#resource-requests-and-limits-of-pod-and-container) for each executor pod launched for the Spark Application.
   </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
@@ -593,4 +602,4 @@ specific to Spark on Kubernetes.
    <code>spark.kubernetes.executor.secrets.spark-secret=/etc/secrets</code>.
   </td>
 </tr>
-</table>
\ No newline at end of file
+</table>
diff --git a/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/k8s/Config.scala b/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/k8s/Config.scala
index da34a7e06238..405ea476351b 100644
--- a/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/k8s/Config.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/k8s/Config.scala
@@ -91,6 +91,12 @@ private[spark] object Config extends Logging {
       .stringConf
       .createOptional
 
+  val KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_REQUEST_CORES =
+    ConfigBuilder("spark.kubernetes.executor.request.cores")
+      .doc("Specify the cpu request for each executor pod")
+      .stringConf
+      .createOptional
+
   val KUBERNETES_DRIVER_POD_NAME =
     ConfigBuilder("spark.kubernetes.driver.pod.name")
       .doc("Name of the driver pod.")
diff --git a/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactory.scala b/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactory.scala
index 98cbd5607da0..44d4d4d243f7 100644
--- a/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactory.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactory.scala
@@ -83,7 +83,12 @@ private[spark] class ExecutorPodFactory(
       MEMORY_OVERHEAD_MIN_MIB))
   private val executorMemoryWithOverhead = executorMemoryMiB + memoryOverheadMiB
 
-  private val executorCores = sparkConf.getDouble("spark.executor.cores", 1)
+  private val executorCores = sparkConf.getInt("spark.executor.cores", 1)
+  private val executorCoresRequest = if (sparkConf.contains(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_REQUEST_CORES)) {
+    sparkConf.get(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_REQUEST_CORES).get
+  } else {
+    executorCores.toString
+  }
   private val executorLimitCores = sparkConf.get(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_LIMIT_CORES)
 
   /**
@@ -114,7 +119,7 @@ private[spark] class ExecutorPodFactory(
       .withAmount(s"${executorMemoryWithOverhead}Mi")
       .build()
     val executorCpuQuantity = new QuantityBuilder(false)
-      .withAmount(executorCores.toString)
+      .withAmount(executorCoresRequest)
       .build()
     val executorExtraClasspathEnv = executorExtraClasspath.map { cp =>
       new EnvVarBuilder()
@@ -133,8 +138,7 @@ private[spark] class ExecutorPodFactory(
       }.getOrElse(Seq.empty[EnvVar])
     val executorEnv = (Seq(
       (ENV_DRIVER_URL, driverUrl),
-      // Executor backend expects integral value for executor cores, so round it up to an int.
-      (ENV_EXECUTOR_CORES, math.ceil(executorCores).toInt.toString),
+      (ENV_EXECUTOR_CORES, executorCores.toString),
       (ENV_EXECUTOR_MEMORY, executorMemoryString),
       (ENV_APPLICATION_ID, applicationId),
       // This is to set the SPARK_CONF_DIR to be /opt/spark/conf
diff --git a/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactorySuite.scala b/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactorySuite.scala
index 7755b9383504..4922baff51dd 100644
--- a/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactorySuite.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/kubernetes/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/scheduler/cluster/k8s/ExecutorPodFactorySuite.scala
@@ -83,6 +83,33 @@ class ExecutorPodFactorySuite extends SparkFunSuite with BeforeAndAfter with Bef
     checkOwnerReferences(executor, driverPodUid)
   }
 
+  test("executor core request specification") {
+    var factory = new ExecutorPodFactory(baseConf, None)
+    var executor = factory.createExecutorPod(
+      "1", "dummy", "dummy", Seq[(String, String)](), driverPod, Map[String, Int]())
+    assert(executor.getSpec.getContainers.size() === 1)
+    assert(executor.getSpec.getContainers.get(0).getResources.getRequests.get("cpu").getAmount
+      === "1")
+
+    val conf = baseConf.clone()
+
+    conf.set(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_REQUEST_CORES, "0.1")
+    factory = new ExecutorPodFactory(conf, None)
+    executor = factory.createExecutorPod(
+      "1", "dummy", "dummy", Seq[(String, String)](), driverPod, Map[String, Int]())
+    assert(executor.getSpec.getContainers.size() === 1)
+    assert(executor.getSpec.getContainers.get(0).getResources.getRequests.get("cpu").getAmount
+      === "0.1")
+
+    conf.set(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_REQUEST_CORES, "100m")
+    factory = new ExecutorPodFactory(conf, None)
+    conf.set(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_REQUEST_CORES, "100m")
+    executor = factory.createExecutorPod(
+      "1", "dummy", "dummy", Seq[(String, String)](), driverPod, Map[String, Int]())
+    assert(executor.getSpec.getContainers.get(0).getResources.getRequests.get("cpu").getAmount
+      === "100m")
+  }
+
   test("executor pod hostnames get truncated to 63 characters") {
     val conf = baseConf.clone()
     conf.set(KUBERNETES_EXECUTOR_POD_NAME_PREFIX,