Instead of initializing SparkContext before every test case or per class you can easily get your SparkContext by extending SharedSparkContext. SharedSparkContext initializes SparkContext before all test cases and stops this context after all test cases. For Spark 2.2 and higher you can also share the SparkContext (and SparkSession if in DataFrame tests) between tests by adding override implicit def reuseContextIfPossible: Boolean = true to your test.

For Java users the same functionality is supported by SharedJavaSparkContext.

Example:

class SampleTest extends FunSuite with SharedSparkContext {
  test("test initializing spark context") {
    val list = List(1, 2, 3, 4)
    val rdd = sc.parallelize(list)
    assert(rdd.count === list.length)
  }
}