diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/pod/wait.go b/test/e2e/framework/pod/wait.go
index 756d6fdb9b4..b5723035d21 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/pod/wait.go
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/pod/wait.go
@@ -435,6 +435,21 @@ func PodsResponding(c clientset.Interface, ns, name string, wantName bool, pods
 	return wait.PollImmediate(poll, podRespondingTimeout, NewProxyResponseChecker(c, ns, label, name, wantName, pods).CheckAllResponses)
 }
 
+// WaitForNumberOfPods waits up to timeout to ensure there are exact
+// `num` pods in namespace `ns`.
+// It returns the matching Pods or a timeout error.
+func WaitForNumberOfPods(c clientset.Interface, ns string, num int, timeout time.Duration) (pods *v1.PodList, err error) {
+	err = wait.PollImmediate(poll, timeout, func() (bool, error) {
+		pods, err = c.CoreV1().Pods(ns).List(context.TODO(), metav1.ListOptions{})
+		// ignore intermittent network error
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, nil
+		}
+		return len(pods.Items) == num, nil
+	})
+	return
+}
+
 // WaitForPodsWithLabelScheduled waits for all matching pods to become scheduled and at least one
 // matching pod exists.  Return the list of matching pods.
 func WaitForPodsWithLabelScheduled(c clientset.Interface, ns string, label labels.Selector) (pods *v1.PodList, err error) {
diff --git a/test/e2e/scheduling/preemption.go b/test/e2e/scheduling/preemption.go
index 97cc12b009f..7cef5a4a622 100644
--- a/test/e2e/scheduling/preemption.go
+++ b/test/e2e/scheduling/preemption.go
@@ -430,22 +430,12 @@ var _ = SIGDescribe("SchedulerPreemption [Serial]", func() {
 			ginkgo.By("Verify there are 3 Pods left in this namespace")
 			wantPods := sets.NewString("high", "medium", "low")
 
-			var pods []v1.Pod
 			// Wait until the number of pods stabilizes. Note that `medium` pod can get scheduled once the
 			// second low priority pod is marked as terminating.
-			// TODO: exact the wait.PollImmediate block to framework.WaitForNumberOfRunningPods.
-			err := wait.PollImmediate(framework.Poll, framework.PollShortTimeout, func() (bool, error) {
-				podList, err := cs.CoreV1().Pods(ns).List(context.TODO(), metav1.ListOptions{})
-				// ignore intermittent network error
-				if err != nil {
-					return false, nil
-				}
-				pods = podList.Items
-				return len(pods) == 3, nil
-			})
+			pods, err := e2epod.WaitForNumberOfPods(cs, ns, 3, framework.PollShortTimeout)
 			framework.ExpectNoError(err)
 
-			for _, pod := range pods {
+			for _, pod := range pods.Items {
 				// Remove the ordinal index for low pod.
 				podName := strings.Split(pod.Name, "-")[0]
 				if wantPods.Has(podName) {