diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolRequest.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolRequest.scala
index 0d50a768942e..86ddf954ca12 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolRequest.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolRequest.scala
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@ private[rest] class CreateSubmissionRequest extends SubmitRestProtocolRequest {
     super.doValidate()
     assert(sparkProperties != null, "No Spark properties set!")
     assertFieldIsSet(appResource, "appResource")
+    assertFieldIsSet(appArgs, "appArgs")
+    assertFieldIsSet(environmentVariables, "environmentVariables")
     assertPropertyIsSet("spark.app.name")
     assertPropertyIsBoolean("spark.driver.supervise")
     assertPropertyIsNumeric("spark.driver.cores")
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolSuite.scala
index 725b8848bc05..75c50af23c66 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/SubmitRestProtocolSuite.scala
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ class SubmitRestProtocolSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
     message.clientSparkVersion = "1.2.3"
     message.appResource = "honey-walnut-cherry.jar"
     message.mainClass = "org.apache.spark.examples.SparkPie"
+    message.appArgs = Array("two slices")
+    message.environmentVariables = Map("PATH" -> "/dev/null")
     val conf = new SparkConf(false)
     conf.set("spark.app.name", "SparkPie")
     message.sparkProperties = conf.getAll.toMap
diff --git a/resource-managers/mesos/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/mesos/MesosRestServer.scala b/resource-managers/mesos/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/mesos/MesosRestServer.scala
index ff60b88c6d53..bb8dfee16518 100644
--- a/resource-managers/mesos/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/mesos/MesosRestServer.scala
+++ b/resource-managers/mesos/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/rest/mesos/MesosRestServer.scala
@@ -77,10 +77,16 @@ private[mesos] class MesosSubmitRequestServlet(
   private def buildDriverDescription(request: CreateSubmissionRequest): MesosDriverDescription = {
     // Required fields, including the main class because python is not yet supported
     val appResource = Option(request.appResource).getOrElse {
-      throw new SubmitRestMissingFieldException("Application jar is missing.")
+      throw new SubmitRestMissingFieldException("Application jar 'appResource' is missing.")
     }
     val mainClass = Option(request.mainClass).getOrElse {
-      throw new SubmitRestMissingFieldException("Main class is missing.")
+      throw new SubmitRestMissingFieldException("Main class 'mainClass' is missing.")
+    }
+    val appArgs = Option(request.appArgs).getOrElse {
+      throw new SubmitRestMissingFieldException("Application arguments 'appArgs' are missing.")
+    }
+    val environmentVariables = Option(request.environmentVariables).getOrElse {
+      throw new SubmitRestMissingFieldException("Environment variables 'environmentVariables' are missing.")
     }
 
     // Optional fields
@@ -91,8 +97,6 @@ private[mesos] class MesosSubmitRequestServlet(
     val superviseDriver = sparkProperties.get("spark.driver.supervise")
     val driverMemory = sparkProperties.get("spark.driver.memory")
     val driverCores = sparkProperties.get("spark.driver.cores")
-    val appArgs = request.appArgs
-    val environmentVariables = request.environmentVariables
     val name = request.sparkProperties.getOrElse("spark.app.name", mainClass)
 
     // Construct driver description