diff --git a/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/10-assert.yaml b/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/10-assert.yaml
index 460a17f9..15886034 100644
--- a/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/10-assert.yaml
+++ b/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/10-assert.yaml
@@ -33,8 +33,10 @@ commands:
   # while the spark-connect server is busy setting up the executors.
   - script: |
       # wait for the spark-connect CR to become available
-      # this is to prevent the spark apps created in the following test steps to fail intermitently
       kubectl wait --for=condition=Available sparkconnectservers/spark-connect --namespace "$NAMESPACE" --timeout=3m
 
       EXECUTOR_COUNT=$(kubectl get pods -n "$NAMESPACE" --selector 'spark-app-name=spark-connect-server' --field-selector='status.phase=Running' -o NAME|wc -l)
       test 1 -eq "$EXECUTOR_COUNT"
+
+      # wait a little longer to increase the chance apps being able to connect
+      sleep 5
diff --git a/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/20-assert.yaml b/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/20-assert.yaml
index b73cfea5..930e3383 100644
--- a/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/20-assert.yaml
+++ b/tests/templates/kuttl/spark-connect/20-assert.yaml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ apiVersion: kuttl.dev/v1beta1
 kind: TestAssert
 metadata:
   name: simple-connect-app
-timeout: 180
+timeout: 300
 ---
 apiVersion: batch/v1
 kind: Job