diff --git a/include/LightGBM/metric.h b/include/LightGBM/metric.h
index 61d9fc99ea80..9d505d2768d1 100644
--- a/include/LightGBM/metric.h
+++ b/include/LightGBM/metric.h
@@ -103,6 +103,14 @@ class DCGCalculator {
   static double CalMaxDCGAtK(data_size_t k,
     const label_t* label, data_size_t num_data);
 
+
+  /*!
+  * \brief Check the metadata for NDCG and lambdarank
+  * \param metadata Metadata
+  * \param num_queries Number of queries
+  */
+  static void CheckMetadata(const Metadata& metadata, data_size_t num_queries);
+
   /*!
   * \brief Check the label range for NDCG and lambdarank
   * \param label Pointer of label
diff --git a/src/io/metadata.cpp b/src/io/metadata.cpp
index 63a1690906a2..49fc834b87df 100644
--- a/src/io/metadata.cpp
+++ b/src/io/metadata.cpp
@@ -277,6 +277,10 @@ void Metadata::CheckOrPartition(data_size_t num_all_data, const std::vector<data
     // re-load query weight
     LoadQueryWeights();
   }
+  if (num_queries_ > 0) {
+    Log::Debug("Number of queries in %s: %i. Average number of rows per query: %f.",
+      data_filename_.c_str(), static_cast<int>(num_queries_), static_cast<double>(num_data_) / num_queries_);
+  }
 }
 
 void Metadata::SetInitScore(const double* init_score, data_size_t len) {
diff --git a/src/metric/dcg_calculator.cpp b/src/metric/dcg_calculator.cpp
index 58843d89f9e1..1d648bfafd40 100644
--- a/src/metric/dcg_calculator.cpp
+++ b/src/metric/dcg_calculator.cpp
@@ -152,6 +152,19 @@ void DCGCalculator::CalDCG(const std::vector<data_size_t>& ks, const label_t* la
   }
 }
 
+void DCGCalculator::CheckMetadata(const Metadata& metadata, data_size_t num_queries) {
+  const data_size_t* query_boundaries = metadata.query_boundaries();
+  if (num_queries > 0 && query_boundaries != nullptr) {
+    for (data_size_t i = 0; i < num_queries; i++) {
+      data_size_t num_rows = query_boundaries[i + 1] - query_boundaries[i];
+      if (num_rows > kMaxPosition) {
+        Log::Fatal("Number of rows %i exceeds upper limit of %i for a query", static_cast<int>(num_rows), static_cast<int>(kMaxPosition));
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+
 void DCGCalculator::CheckLabel(const label_t* label, data_size_t num_data) {
   for (data_size_t i = 0; i < num_data; ++i) {
     label_t delta = std::fabs(label[i] - static_cast<int>(label[i]));
diff --git a/src/metric/rank_metric.hpp b/src/metric/rank_metric.hpp
index 3b3afb547eb9..58804f415278 100644
--- a/src/metric/rank_metric.hpp
+++ b/src/metric/rank_metric.hpp
@@ -37,13 +37,14 @@ class NDCGMetric:public Metric {
     num_data_ = num_data;
     // get label
     label_ = metadata.label();
+    num_queries_ = metadata.num_queries();
+    DCGCalculator::CheckMetadata(metadata, num_queries_);
     DCGCalculator::CheckLabel(label_, num_data_);
     // get query boundaries
     query_boundaries_ = metadata.query_boundaries();
     if (query_boundaries_ == nullptr) {
       Log::Fatal("The NDCG metric requires query information");
     }
-    num_queries_ = metadata.num_queries();
     // get query weights
     query_weights_ = metadata.query_weights();
     if (query_weights_ == nullptr) {
diff --git a/src/objective/rank_objective.hpp b/src/objective/rank_objective.hpp
index a720a69a3148..9bd7b7d99cf6 100644
--- a/src/objective/rank_objective.hpp
+++ b/src/objective/rank_objective.hpp
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ class LambdarankNDCG : public RankingObjective {
 
   void Init(const Metadata& metadata, data_size_t num_data) override {
     RankingObjective::Init(metadata, num_data);
+    DCGCalculator::CheckMetadata(metadata, num_queries_);
     DCGCalculator::CheckLabel(label_, num_data_);
     inverse_max_dcgs_.resize(num_queries_);
 #pragma omp parallel for schedule(static)