diff --git a/dev/pip-sanity-check.py b/dev/pip-sanity-check.py
index 4171f28684d59..e9f10233b12b7 100644
--- a/dev/pip-sanity-check.py
+++ b/dev/pip-sanity-check.py
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from __future__ import print_function
-
 from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
 from pyspark.mllib.linalg import *
 import sys
diff --git a/dev/run-pip-tests b/dev/run-pip-tests
index 60cf4d8209416..1294a9096fb95 100755
--- a/dev/run-pip-tests
+++ b/dev/run-pip-tests
@@ -39,21 +39,16 @@ PYTHON_EXECS=()
 # Some systems don't have pip or virtualenv - in those cases our tests won't work.
 if hash virtualenv 2>/dev/null && [ ! -n "$USE_CONDA" ]; then
   echo "virtualenv installed - using. Note if this is a conda virtual env you may wish to set USE_CONDA"
-  # Figure out which Python execs we should test pip installation with
-  if hash python2 2>/dev/null; then
-    # We do this since we are testing with virtualenv and the default virtual env python
-    # is in /usr/bin/python
-    PYTHON_EXECS+=('python2')
-  elif hash python 2>/dev/null; then
-    # If python2 isn't installed fallback to python if available
-    PYTHON_EXECS+=('python')
-  fi
+  # test only against python3
   if hash python3 2>/dev/null; then
-    PYTHON_EXECS+=('python3')
+    PYTHON_EXECS=('python3')
+  else
+    echo "Python3 not installed on system, skipping pip installability tests"
+    exit 0
   fi
 elif hash conda 2>/dev/null; then
   echo "Using conda virtual environments"
-  PYTHON_EXECS=('3.5')
+  PYTHON_EXECS=('3.6')
   USE_CONDA=1
 else
   echo "Missing virtualenv & conda, skipping pip installability tests"
@@ -97,7 +92,7 @@ for python in "${PYTHON_EXECS[@]}"; do
     cd "$FWDIR"/python
     # Delete the egg info file if it exists, this can cache the setup file.
     rm -rf pyspark.egg-info || echo "No existing egg info file, skipping deletion"
-    python setup.py sdist
+    python3 setup.py sdist
 
 
     echo "Installing dist into virtual env"
@@ -117,9 +112,9 @@ for python in "${PYTHON_EXECS[@]}"; do
     echo "Run basic sanity check on pip installed version with spark-submit"
     spark-submit "$FWDIR"/dev/pip-sanity-check.py
     echo "Run basic sanity check with import based"
-    python "$FWDIR"/dev/pip-sanity-check.py
+    python3 "$FWDIR"/dev/pip-sanity-check.py
     echo "Run the tests for context.py"
-    python "$FWDIR"/python/pyspark/context.py
+    python3 "$FWDIR"/python/pyspark/context.py
 
     cd "$FWDIR"
 
diff --git a/dev/run-tests b/dev/run-tests
index 9cf93d000d0ea..143d78ec63731 100755
--- a/dev/run-tests
+++ b/dev/run-tests
@@ -20,10 +20,10 @@
 FWDIR="$(cd "`dirname $0`"/..; pwd)"
 cd "$FWDIR"
 
-PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK=$(python -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info < (2, 7, 0))')
+PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK=$(python3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info < (3, 6, 0))')
 if [[ "$PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK" == "True" ]]; then
-  echo "Python versions prior to 2.7 are not supported."
+  echo "Python versions prior to 3.6 are not supported."
   exit -1
 fi
 
-exec python -u ./dev/run-tests.py "$@"
+exec python3 -u ./dev/run-tests.py "$@"
diff --git a/dev/run-tests-jenkins b/dev/run-tests-jenkins
index 5bc03e41d1f2d..c3adc696a5122 100755
--- a/dev/run-tests-jenkins
+++ b/dev/run-tests-jenkins
@@ -25,10 +25,12 @@
 FWDIR="$( cd "$( dirname "$0" )/.." && pwd )"
 cd "$FWDIR"
 
-PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK=$(python -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info < (2, 7, 0))')
+export PATH=/home/anaconda/envs/py36/bin:$PATH
+
+PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK=$(python3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info < (3, 6, 0))')
 if [[ "$PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK" == "True" ]]; then
-  echo "Python versions prior to 2.7 are not supported."
+  echo "Python versions prior to 3.6 are not supported."
   exit -1
 fi
 
-exec python -u ./dev/run-tests-jenkins.py "$@"
+exec python3 -u ./dev/run-tests-jenkins.py "$@"
diff --git a/dev/run-tests-jenkins.py b/dev/run-tests-jenkins.py
index e9b0b327603be..5429aeba8ea13 100755
--- a/dev/run-tests-jenkins.py
+++ b/dev/run-tests-jenkins.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 
 #
 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from __future__ import print_function
 import os
 import sys
 import json
diff --git a/dev/run-tests.py b/dev/run-tests.py
index ea515708124db..82277720bb52f 100755
--- a/dev/run-tests.py
+++ b/dev/run-tests.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 
 #
 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from __future__ import print_function
 import itertools
 from argparse import ArgumentParser
 import os
@@ -265,7 +264,7 @@ def exec_sbt(sbt_args=()):
     echo_proc.wait()
     for line in iter(sbt_proc.stdout.readline, b''):
         if not sbt_output_filter.match(line):
-            print(line, end='')
+            print(line.decode('utf-8'), end='')
     retcode = sbt_proc.wait()
 
     if retcode != 0:
diff --git a/dev/sparktestsupport/shellutils.py b/dev/sparktestsupport/shellutils.py
index ec6ea86269f5e..d9cb8aa45c8d2 100644
--- a/dev/sparktestsupport/shellutils.py
+++ b/dev/sparktestsupport/shellutils.py
@@ -15,14 +15,12 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from __future__ import print_function
 import os
 import shutil
 import subprocess
 import sys
 
 subprocess_check_output = subprocess.check_output
-subprocess_check_call = subprocess.check_call
 
 
 def exit_from_command_with_retcode(cmd, retcode):
@@ -55,9 +53,9 @@ def run_cmd(cmd, return_output=False):
         cmd = cmd.split()
     try:
         if return_output:
-            return subprocess_check_output(cmd).decode(sys.getdefaultencoding())
+            return subprocess_check_output(cmd).decode('utf-8')
         else:
-            return subprocess_check_call(cmd)
+            return subprocess.run(cmd, universal_newlines=True, check=True)
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
         exit_from_command_with_retcode(e.cmd, e.returncode)
 
diff --git a/python/pyspark/context.py b/python/pyspark/context.py
index e7e7bcd95a065..a6aa3a65568e9 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/context.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/context.py
@@ -15,8 +15,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from __future__ import print_function
-
 import os
 import shutil
 import signal
diff --git a/python/pyspark/version.py b/python/pyspark/version.py
index ba2a40cec01e6..1abc41279ebe8 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/version.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/version.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 
 #
 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
diff --git a/python/run-tests b/python/run-tests
index 24949657ed7ab..b8c64d8a295a2 100755
--- a/python/run-tests
+++ b/python/run-tests
@@ -21,4 +21,10 @@
 FWDIR="$(cd "`dirname $0`"/..; pwd)"
 cd "$FWDIR"
 
-exec python -u ./python/run-tests.py "$@"
+PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK=$(python3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info < (3, 6, 0))')
+if [[ "$PYTHON_VERSION_CHECK" == "True" ]]; then
+  echo "Python versions prior to 3.6 are not supported."
+  exit -1
+fi
+
+exec python3 -u ./python/run-tests.py "$@"
diff --git a/python/run-tests.py b/python/run-tests.py
index b1119b044d71f..5bcf8b0669129 100755
--- a/python/run-tests.py
+++ b/python/run-tests.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 
 #
 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-from __future__ import print_function
 import logging
 from argparse import ArgumentParser
 import os
@@ -160,11 +159,15 @@ def run_individual_python_test(target_dir, test_name, pyspark_python):
 
 
 def get_default_python_executables():
-    python_execs = [x for x in ["python2.7", "python3.6", "pypy"] if which(x)]
-    if "python2.7" not in python_execs:
-        LOGGER.warning("Not testing against `python2.7` because it could not be found; falling"
-                       " back to `python` instead")
-        python_execs.insert(0, "python")
+    python_execs = [x for x in ["python3.6", "python2.7", "pypy"] if which(x)]
+
+    if "python3.6" not in python_execs:
+        p = which("python3")
+        if not p:
+            LOGGER.error("No python3 executable found.  Exiting!")
+            os._exit(1)
+        else:
+            python_execs.insert(0, p)
     return python_execs
 
 
diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index ea672309703b6..092bdd3f90117
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 
 #
 # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
@@ -16,15 +16,14 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-from __future__ import print_function
 import glob
 import os
 import sys
 from setuptools import setup
 from shutil import copyfile, copytree, rmtree
 
-if sys.version_info < (2, 7):
-    print("Python versions prior to 2.7 are not supported for pip installed PySpark.",
+if sys.version_info < (3, 6):
+    print("Python versions prior to 3.6 are not supported for pip installed PySpark.",
           file=sys.stderr)
     sys.exit(-1)