diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/RuntimeConfig.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/RuntimeConfig.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e90a04243164b5919ef17ba6dacc9194a01d1dcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/RuntimeConfig.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql
+
+/**
+ * Runtime configuration interface for Spark. To access this, use `SparkSession.conf`.
+ *
+ * @since 2.0.0
+ */
+abstract class RuntimeConfig {
+
+  /**
+   * Sets the given Spark runtime configuration property.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def set(key: String, value: String): RuntimeConfig
+
+  /**
+   * Sets the given Spark runtime configuration property.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def set(key: String, value: Boolean): RuntimeConfig
+
+  /**
+   * Sets the given Spark runtime configuration property.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def set(key: String, value: Long): RuntimeConfig
+
+  /**
+   * Returns the value of Spark runtime configuration property for the given key.
+   *
+   * @throws NoSuchElementException if the key is not set and does not have a default value
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  @throws[NoSuchElementException]("if the key is not set")
+  def get(key: String): String
+
+  /**
+   * Returns the value of Spark runtime configuration property for the given key.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def getOption(key: String): Option[String]
+
+  /**
+   * Resets the configuration property for the given key.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def unset(key: String): Unit
+
+  /**
+   * Sets the given Hadoop configuration property. This is passed directly to Hadoop during I/O.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def setHadoop(key: String, value: String): RuntimeConfig
+
+  /**
+   * Returns the value of the Hadoop configuration property.
+   *
+   * @throws NoSuchElementException if the key is not set
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  @throws[NoSuchElementException]("if the key is not set")
+  def getHadoop(key: String): String
+
+  /**
+   * Returns the value of the Hadoop configuration property.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def getHadoopOption(key: String): Option[String]
+
+  /**
+   * Resets the Hadoop configuration property for the given key.
+   *
+   * @since 2.0.0
+   */
+  def unsetHadoop(key: String): Unit
+}
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/RuntimeConfigImpl.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/RuntimeConfigImpl.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..058df1e3c19a779fd0ec04e293050622d4d113f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/RuntimeConfigImpl.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.internal
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.RuntimeConfig
+
+/**
+ * Implementation for [[RuntimeConfig]].
+ */
+class RuntimeConfigImpl extends RuntimeConfig {
+
+  private val conf = new SQLConf
+
+  private val hadoopConf = java.util.Collections.synchronizedMap(
+    new java.util.HashMap[String, String]())
+
+  override def set(key: String, value: String): RuntimeConfig = {
+    conf.setConfString(key, value)
+    this
+  }
+
+  override def set(key: String, value: Boolean): RuntimeConfig = set(key, value.toString)
+
+  override def set(key: String, value: Long): RuntimeConfig = set(key, value.toString)
+
+  @throws[NoSuchElementException]("if the key is not set")
+  override def get(key: String): String = conf.getConfString(key)
+
+  override def getOption(key: String): Option[String] = {
+    try Option(get(key)) catch {
+      case _: NoSuchElementException => None
+    }
+  }
+
+  override def unset(key: String): Unit = conf.unsetConf(key)
+
+  override def setHadoop(key: String, value: String): RuntimeConfig = {
+    hadoopConf.put(key, value)
+    this
+  }
+
+  @throws[NoSuchElementException]("if the key is not set")
+  override def getHadoop(key: String): String = hadoopConf.synchronized {
+    if (hadoopConf.containsKey(key)) {
+      hadoopConf.get(key)
+    } else {
+      throw new NoSuchElementException(key)
+    }
+  }
+
+  override def getHadoopOption(key: String): Option[String] = {
+    try Option(getHadoop(key)) catch {
+      case _: NoSuchElementException => None
+    }
+  }
+
+  override def unsetHadoop(key: String): Unit = hadoopConf.remove(key)
+}
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
index c1e3f386b25627390c12d0ef3ad232748d217250..9a50ef77efbd4645002893975bc4156e0ee11b42 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.internal
 
-import java.util.Properties
+import java.util.{NoSuchElementException, Properties}
 
 import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
 import scala.collection.immutable
@@ -649,6 +649,7 @@ class SQLConf extends Serializable with CatalystConf with ParserConf with Loggin
   }
 
   /** Return the value of Spark SQL configuration property for the given key. */
+  @throws[NoSuchElementException]("if key is not set")
   def getConfString(key: String): String = {
     Option(settings.get(key)).
       orElse {
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/RuntimeConfigSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/RuntimeConfigSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f809e01169355eb2dfb18d60dbbaa27ba04ad9a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/RuntimeConfigSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.internal
+
+import org.apache.spark.SparkFunSuite
+import org.apache.spark.sql.RuntimeConfig
+
+class RuntimeConfigSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
+
+  private def newConf(): RuntimeConfig = new RuntimeConfigImpl
+
+  test("set and get") {
+    val conf = newConf()
+    conf
+      .set("k1", "v1")
+      .set("k2", 2)
+      .set("k3", value = false)
+
+    assert(conf.get("k1") == "v1")
+    assert(conf.get("k2") == "2")
+    assert(conf.get("k3") == "false")
+
+    intercept[NoSuchElementException] {
+      conf.get("notset")
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("getOption") {
+    val conf = newConf().set("k1", "v1")
+    assert(conf.getOption("k1") == Some("v1"))
+    assert(conf.getOption("notset") == None)
+  }
+
+  test("unset") {
+    val conf = newConf().set("k1", "v1")
+    assert(conf.get("k1") == "v1")
+    conf.unset("k1")
+    intercept[NoSuchElementException] {
+      conf.get("k1")
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("set and get hadoop configuration") {
+    val conf = newConf()
+    conf
+      .setHadoop("k1", "v1")
+      .setHadoop("k2", "v2")
+
+    assert(conf.getHadoop("k1") == "v1")
+    assert(conf.getHadoop("k2") == "v2")
+
+    intercept[NoSuchElementException] {
+      conf.get("notset")
+    }
+  }
+
+  test("getHadoopOption") {
+    val conf = newConf().setHadoop("k1", "v1")
+    assert(conf.getHadoopOption("k1") == Some("v1"))
+    assert(conf.getHadoopOption("notset") == None)
+  }
+
+  test("unsetHadoop") {
+    val conf = newConf().setHadoop("k1", "v1")
+    assert(conf.getHadoop("k1") == "v1")
+    conf.unsetHadoop("k1")
+    intercept[NoSuchElementException] {
+      conf.getHadoop("k1")
+    }
+  }
+}