diff --git a/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/ExecutorClassLoader.scala b/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/ExecutorClassLoader.scala
index 5ee325008a5c..28b5a2ff1010 100644
--- a/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/ExecutorClassLoader.scala
+++ b/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/ExecutorClassLoader.scala
@@ -18,12 +18,12 @@
 package org.apache.spark.repl
 
 import java.io.{ByteArrayOutputStream, InputStream}
-import java.net.{URI, URL, URLEncoder}
+import java.net.{HttpURLConnection, URI, URL, URLEncoder}
 import java.util.concurrent.{Executors, ExecutorService}
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FileSystem, Path}
 
-import org.apache.spark.{SparkConf, SparkEnv}
+import org.apache.spark.{Logging, SparkConf, SparkEnv}
 import org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkHadoopUtil
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
 import org.apache.spark.util.ParentClassLoader
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ import com.esotericsoftware.reflectasm.shaded.org.objectweb.asm.Opcodes._
  * Allows the user to specify if user class path should be first
  */
 class ExecutorClassLoader(conf: SparkConf, classUri: String, parent: ClassLoader,
-    userClassPathFirst: Boolean) extends ClassLoader {
+    userClassPathFirst: Boolean) extends ClassLoader with Logging {
+
   val uri = new URI(classUri)
   val directory = uri.getPath
 
@@ -71,27 +72,64 @@ class ExecutorClassLoader(conf: SparkConf, classUri: String, parent: ClassLoader
     }
   }
 
+  private def getClassFileInputStreamFromHttpServer(pathInDirectory: String): InputStream = {
+    val url: URL = if (SparkEnv.get.securityManager.isAuthenticationEnabled()) {
+      val uri = new URI(classUri + "/" + urlEncode(pathInDirectory))
+      Utils.constructURIForAuthentication(uri, SparkEnv.get.securityManager).toURL
+    } else {
+      new URL(classUri + "/" + urlEncode(pathInDirectory))
+    }
+    val connection = url.openConnection().asInstanceOf[HttpURLConnection]
+    if (connection.asInstanceOf[HttpURLConnection].getResponseCode != 200) {
+      connection.disconnect()
+      throw new ClassNotFoundException(s"Class file not found at URL $url")
+    } else {
+      connection.getInputStream
+    }
+  }
+
+  private def getClassFileInputStreamFromFileSystem(pathInDirectory: String): InputStream = {
+    val path = new Path(directory, pathInDirectory)
+    if (fileSystem.exists(path)) {
+      fileSystem.open(path)
+    } else {
+      throw new ClassNotFoundException(s"Class file not found at path $path")
+    }
+  }
+
   def findClassLocally(name: String): Option[Class[_]] = {
+    val pathInDirectory = name.replace('.', '/') + ".class"
+    var inputStream: InputStream = null
     try {
-      val pathInDirectory = name.replace('.', '/') + ".class"
-      val inputStream = {
+      inputStream = {
         if (fileSystem != null) {
-          fileSystem.open(new Path(directory, pathInDirectory))
+          getClassFileInputStreamFromFileSystem(pathInDirectory)
         } else {
-          if (SparkEnv.get.securityManager.isAuthenticationEnabled()) {
-            val uri = new URI(classUri + "/" + urlEncode(pathInDirectory))
-            val newuri = Utils.constructURIForAuthentication(uri, SparkEnv.get.securityManager)
-            newuri.toURL().openStream()
-          } else {
-            new URL(classUri + "/" + urlEncode(pathInDirectory)).openStream()
-          }
+          getClassFileInputStreamFromHttpServer(pathInDirectory)
         }
       }
       val bytes = readAndTransformClass(name, inputStream)
-      inputStream.close()
       Some(defineClass(name, bytes, 0, bytes.length))
     } catch {
-      case e: Exception => None
+      case cnfe: ClassNotFoundException =>
+        // This is an expected exception due to not being able to find a class.
+        // Therefore, we'll log it at debug level to avoid polluting the logs with noise
+        logDebug(s"Class $name not found", cnfe)
+        None
+      case e: Exception =>
+        // This is an unexpected exception; maybe something went wrong while processing the
+        // class file.  Therefore, log an error:
+        logError(s"Exception while loading class $name", e)
+        None
+    } finally {
+      if (inputStream != null) {
+        try {
+          inputStream.close()
+        } catch {
+          case e: Exception =>
+            logError("Exception while closing inputStream", e)
+        }
+      }
     }
   }