diff --git a/externals/kyuubi-spark-sql-engine/src/main/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/engine/spark/SparkSQLEngine.scala b/externals/kyuubi-spark-sql-engine/src/main/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/engine/spark/SparkSQLEngine.scala
index 42e7c44a1..6f8aa2ec0 100644
--- a/externals/kyuubi-spark-sql-engine/src/main/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/engine/spark/SparkSQLEngine.scala
+++ b/externals/kyuubi-spark-sql-engine/src/main/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/engine/spark/SparkSQLEngine.scala
@@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ object SparkSQLEngine extends Logging {
 
   private def startInitTimeoutChecker(startTime: Long, timeout: Long): Unit = {
     val mainThread = Thread.currentThread()
-    new Thread(
+    val checker = new Thread(
       () => {
         while (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime < timeout && !sparkSessionCreated.get()) {
           Thread.sleep(500)
@@ -368,7 +368,9 @@ object SparkSQLEngine extends Logging {
           mainThread.interrupt()
         }
       },
-      "CreateSparkTimeoutChecker").start()
+      "CreateSparkTimeoutChecker")
+    checker.setDaemon(true)
+    checker.start()
   }
 
   private def isOnK8sClusterMode: Boolean = {
diff --git a/integration-tests/kyuubi-kubernetes-it/src/test/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/kubernetes/test/spark/SparkOnKubernetesTestsSuite.scala b/integration-tests/kyuubi-kubernetes-it/src/test/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/kubernetes/test/spark/SparkOnKubernetesTestsSuite.scala
index 5141ff4d7..74090bc40 100644
--- a/integration-tests/kyuubi-kubernetes-it/src/test/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/kubernetes/test/spark/SparkOnKubernetesTestsSuite.scala
+++ b/integration-tests/kyuubi-kubernetes-it/src/test/scala/org/apache/kyuubi/kubernetes/test/spark/SparkOnKubernetesTestsSuite.scala
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ abstract class SparkOnKubernetesSuiteBase
       .set("spark.kubernetes.executor.request.cores", "250m")
       .set("kyuubi.kubernetes.context", "minikube")
       .set("kyuubi.frontend.protocols", "THRIFT_BINARY,REST")
+      .set("kyuubi.session.engine.initialize.timeout", "PT10M")
   }
 }