diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/optimizer/Optimizer.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/optimizer/Optimizer.scala
index 2d03fbfb0d31..e0ee0ad18254 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/optimizer/Optimizer.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/optimizer/Optimizer.scala
@@ -119,6 +119,26 @@ object UnionPushdown extends Rule[LogicalPlan] {
  */
 object ColumnPruning extends Rule[LogicalPlan] {
   def apply(plan: LogicalPlan): LogicalPlan = plan transform {
+    // Eliminate unneeded attributes from Expand that is used in GroupingSets
+    case a @ Aggregate(groupByExprs, aggregations, e @ Expand(projections, output, child))
+        if (e.outputSet -- a.references).nonEmpty =>
+      // It is safe to remove these attributes because they are not referred in the wrapping
+      // Aggregate node.
+      val prunedProjections = projections.map { groupExpr =>
+        val newExprs = groupExpr.collect {
+          case x: NamedExpression if a.references.contains(x) => x
+          case l: Literal => l
+        }
+        GroupExpression(newExprs)
+      }
+
+      val newOutput = output.collect {
+        case x: NamedExpression if a.references.contains(x) => x
+        case x: AttributeReference if x.name == VirtualColumn.groupingIdName => x
+      }
+
+      Aggregate(groupByExprs, aggregations, Expand(prunedProjections, newOutput, child))
+
     // Eliminate attributes that are not needed to calculate the specified aggregates.
     case a @ Aggregate(_, _, child) if (child.outputSet -- a.references).nonEmpty =>
       a.copy(child = Project(a.references.toSeq, child))
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/optimizer/FilterPushdownSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/optimizer/FilterPushdownSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..57149914a32e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/optimizer/FilterPushdownSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.optimizer
+
+import org.scalatest.BeforeAndAfter
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.plans.logical._
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions._
+import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.QueryExecutionException
+import org.apache.spark.sql.{QueryTest, _}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive
+import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
+import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive._
+
+case class TestData(a: Int, b: Int, c: Int, d: Int)
+
+class FilterPushdownSuite extends QueryTest with BeforeAndAfter {
+  import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive.implicits._
+
+
+  val testData = TestHive.sparkContext.parallelize(
+    (1 to 100).map(i => TestData(i, i + 1, i + 10, i + 20))).toDF()
+  
+  before {
+    // Since every we are doing tests for DDL statements,
+    // it is better to reset before every test.
+    TestHive.reset()
+    // Register the testData, which will be used in every test.
+    testData.registerTempTable("testData")
+  }
+
+  test("Remove unnecessary attributes when resolving GroupingSets") {
+    val sqlString = "SELECT a, SUM(c) FROM testData GROUP BY a, b GROUPING SETS ((a, b), a)"
+    val queryExecution = sql(sqlString).queryExecution
+
+    // Since the field `d` is not referred in Aggregate node, it will be removed from
+    // the GroupExpressions in optimizedPlan
+    val groupExpressions = queryExecution.optimizedPlan.collect {
+      case e: Expand => e
+    } match {
+      case Seq(e: Expand) => e.projections // Expand.projections is Seq[GroupExpression]
+      case _ => fail(s"More than one Expand found\n$queryExecution")
+    }
+    groupExpressions.foreach(_.collect {
+      case ne: NamedExpression if ne.name == "d" =>
+        fail(s"Attribute ${ne.name} should not be found after optimizaton")
+    })
+  }
+}