diff --git a/test/nvme/sw_hotplug.sh b/test/nvme/sw_hotplug.sh
index 43ed89170..5bc149042 100755
--- a/test/nvme/sw_hotplug.sh
+++ b/test/nvme/sw_hotplug.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ rootdir=$(readlink -f $testdir/../..)
 source $rootdir/scripts/common.sh
 source $rootdir/test/common/autotest_common.sh
 
+export PYTHONPATH="$rootdir/examples/nvme/hotplug/"
+rpc_py=$rootdir/scripts/rpc.py
+
 # Pci bus hotplug
 # Helper function to remove/attach cotrollers
 remove_attach_helper() {
@@ -16,12 +19,6 @@ remove_attach_helper() {
 	local use_bdev=$3
 	local dev
 
-	# We need to make sure we wait long enough for hotplug to initialize the devices
-	# and start IO - if we start removing devices before that happens we will end up
-	# stepping on hotplug's toes forcing it to fail to report proper count of given
-	# events.
-	sleep "$hotplug_wait"
-
 	while ((hotplug_events--)); do
 		for dev in "${nvmes[@]}"; do
 			echo 1 > "/sys/bus/pci/devices/$dev/remove"
@@ -72,30 +69,29 @@ remove_attach_helper() {
 run_hotplug() {
 	trap 'killprocess $hotplug_pid; exit 1' SIGINT SIGTERM EXIT
 
-	"$SPDK_EXAMPLE_DIR/hotplug" \
+	test_time=$((hotplug_events * hotplug_wait * nvme_count))
+
+	# Hotplug may sometimes hang, so start it via timeout command.
+	timeout -k 2s $((test_time + hotplug_wait)) "$SPDK_EXAMPLE_DIR/hotplug" \
 		-i 0 \
-		-t $((hotplug_events * hotplug_wait + hotplug_wait * 3)) \
+		-t $((test_time)) \
 		-n $((hotplug_events * nvme_count)) \
 		-r $((hotplug_events * nvme_count)) \
-		-l warning &
-	hotplug_pid=$!
+		-l warning --wait-for-rpc &
+	timeout_pid=$!
+	hotplug_pid=$(ps -o pid= --ppid "$timeout_pid")
+
+	# Make sure Hotplug started before removing and inserting devices.
+	waitforlisten "$hotplug_pid"
+
+	$rpc_py --plugin hotplug_plugin perform_tests
 
 	remove_attach_helper "$hotplug_events" "$hotplug_wait" false
 
-	# Wait in case hotplug app is lagging behind
-	# and kill it, if it hung.
-	sleep $hotplug_wait
-
-	if ! kill -0 "$hotplug_pid"; then
-		# hotplug already finished, check for the error code.
-		wait "$hotplug_pid"
-	else
-		echo "Killing hotplug application"
-		killprocess $hotplug_pid
-		return 1
-	fi
-
 	trap - SIGINT SIGTERM EXIT
+
+	# Check timeout return code.
+	wait "$timeout_pid"
 }
 
 # SPDK target hotplug