diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManager.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManager.scala
index 632d5f260b737..f98bbc6be10ed 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManager.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManager.scala
@@ -114,9 +114,13 @@ private[spark] class ExecutorAllocationManager(
   // TODO: The default value of 1 for spark.executor.cores works right now because dynamic
   // allocation is only supported for YARN and the default number of cores per executor in YARN is
   // 1, but it might need to be attained differently for different cluster managers
-  private val tasksPerExecutor =
+  private val taskSlotPerExecutor =
     conf.getInt("spark.executor.cores", 1) / conf.getInt("spark.task.cpus", 1)
 
+  private val tasksPerExecutorSlot = conf.getInt("spark.dynamicAllocation.tasksPerExecutorSlot", 1)
+
+  private val tasksPerExecutor = tasksPerExecutorSlot * taskSlotPerExecutor
+
   validateSettings()
 
   // Number of executors to add in the next round
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite.scala
index b9ce71a0c5254..593efb112f9ae 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite.scala
@@ -137,6 +137,34 @@ class ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite
     assert(numExecutorsToAdd(manager) === 1)
   }
 
+  test("tasksPerExecutorSlot is correctly handled") {
+    val conf = new SparkConf()
+      .setMaster("myDummyLocalExternalClusterManager")
+      .setAppName("test-executor-allocation-manager")
+      .set("spark.dynamicAllocation.enabled", "true")
+      .set("spark.dynamicAllocation.testing", "true")
+
+    val sc0 = new SparkContext(conf)
+    contexts += sc0
+    var manager = sc0.executorAllocationManager.get
+    assert(tasksPerExecutor(manager) === 1)
+    sc0.stop()
+
+    val conf1 = conf.clone.set("spark.dynamicAllocation.tasksPerExecutorSlot", "2")
+    val sc1 = new SparkContext(conf1)
+    contexts += sc1
+    manager = sc1.executorAllocationManager.get
+    assert(tasksPerExecutor(manager) === 2)
+    sc1.stop()
+
+    val conf2 = conf1.clone.set("spark.executor.cores", "2")
+    val sc2 = new SparkContext(conf2)
+    contexts += sc2
+    manager = sc2.executorAllocationManager.get
+    assert(tasksPerExecutor(manager) === 4)
+    sc2.stop()
+  }
+
   test("add executors capped by num pending tasks") {
     sc = createSparkContext(0, 10, 0)
     val manager = sc.executorAllocationManager.get
@@ -1061,6 +1089,7 @@ private object ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite extends PrivateMethodTester {
   private val _onExecutorBusy = PrivateMethod[Unit]('onExecutorBusy)
   private val _localityAwareTasks = PrivateMethod[Int]('localityAwareTasks)
   private val _hostToLocalTaskCount = PrivateMethod[Map[String, Int]]('hostToLocalTaskCount)
+  private val _tasksPerExecutor = PrivateMethod[Int]('tasksPerExecutor)
 
   private def numExecutorsToAdd(manager: ExecutorAllocationManager): Int = {
     manager invokePrivate _numExecutorsToAdd()
@@ -1143,6 +1172,10 @@ private object ExecutorAllocationManagerSuite extends PrivateMethodTester {
   private def hostToLocalTaskCount(manager: ExecutorAllocationManager): Map[String, Int] = {
     manager invokePrivate _hostToLocalTaskCount()
   }
+
+  private def tasksPerExecutor(manager: ExecutorAllocationManager): Int = {
+    manager invokePrivate _tasksPerExecutor()
+  }
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index c39c7580fd75a..081704f0fe061 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -1584,6 +1584,7 @@ Apart from these, the following properties are also available, and may be useful
     <code>spark.dynamicAllocation.minExecutors</code>,
     <code>spark.dynamicAllocation.maxExecutors</code>, and
     <code>spark.dynamicAllocation.initialExecutors</code>
+    <code>spark.dynamicAllocation.tasksPerExecutorSlots</code>
   </td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
@@ -1628,6 +1629,19 @@ Apart from these, the following properties are also available, and may be useful
     Lower bound for the number of executors if dynamic allocation is enabled.
   </td>
 </tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><code>spark.dynamicAllocation.tasksPerSlot</code></td>
+  <td>1</td>
+  <td>
+    Each executor can process a certain number of tasks in parallel (task slots).
+    The number of task slots per executor is: executor.cores / task.cpus.
+    The ExecutorAllocationManager will set a target number of running executors equal to:
+    nbCurrentTask / (taskSlots * tasksPerSlot), with nbCurrentTask being the total number
+    of running and backlogged tasks. With the default value of 1, each available task slot
+    will compute a single task in average, which gives the best latency. With small tasks
+    however, this setting wastes a lot of resources due to executor allocation overhead
+  </td>
+</tr>
 <tr>
   <td><code>spark.dynamicAllocation.schedulerBacklogTimeout</code></td>
   <td>1s</td>