diff --git a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/common/Operator.java b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/common/Operator.java
index 80abed705af9..77e8965a213a 100644
--- a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/common/Operator.java
+++ b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/common/Operator.java
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 package org.apache.pinot.core.common;
 
 import org.apache.pinot.core.operator.ExecutionStatistics;
+import org.apache.pinot.core.query.exception.EarlyTerminationException;
 
 
 public interface Operator<T extends Block> {
@@ -28,7 +29,10 @@ public interface Operator<T extends Block> {
    * <p>For filter operator and operators above projection phase (aggregation, selection, combine etc.), method should
    * only be called once, and will return a non-null block.
    * <p>For operators in projection phase (docIdSet, projection, transformExpression), method can be called multiple
-   * times, and will return non-empty block or null if no more documents available</p>
+   * times, and will return non-empty block or null if no more documents available
+   *
+   * @throws EarlyTerminationException if the operator is early-terminated (interrupted) before processing the next
+   *         block of data. Operator can early terminated when the query times out, or is already satisfied.
    */
   T nextBlock();
 
diff --git a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/BaseOperator.java b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/BaseOperator.java
index 0ad8d1eaaf09..d0a4d09ac41b 100644
--- a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/BaseOperator.java
+++ b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/BaseOperator.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 
 import org.apache.pinot.core.common.Block;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.common.Operator;
+import org.apache.pinot.core.query.exception.EarlyTerminationException;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.util.trace.TraceContext;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -34,7 +35,7 @@ public abstract class BaseOperator<T extends Block> implements Operator<T> {
   @Override
   public final T nextBlock() {
     if (Thread.interrupted()) {
-      throw new RuntimeException("Thread has been interrupted");
+      throw new EarlyTerminationException();
     }
     if (TraceContext.traceEnabled()) {
       long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
diff --git a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOperator.java b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOperator.java
index c15342ea9ed1..0508142eb2a8 100644
--- a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOperator.java
+++ b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOperator.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 import org.apache.pinot.core.query.aggregation.groupby.AggregationGroupByResult;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.query.aggregation.groupby.AggregationGroupByTrimmingService;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.query.aggregation.groupby.GroupKeyGenerator;
+import org.apache.pinot.core.query.exception.EarlyTerminationException;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.util.trace.TraceRunnable;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -176,6 +177,8 @@ public void runJob() {
                 });
               }
             }
+          } catch (EarlyTerminationException e) {
+            // Early-terminated because query times out or is already satisfied
           } catch (Exception e) {
             LOGGER.error("Exception processing CombineGroupBy for index {}, operator {}", index,
                 _operators.get(index).getClass().getName(), e);
diff --git a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOrderByOperator.java b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOrderByOperator.java
index a06090d2e75a..1c7ff67c935a 100644
--- a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOrderByOperator.java
+++ b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineGroupByOrderByOperator.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 import org.apache.pinot.core.operator.blocks.IntermediateResultsBlock;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.query.aggregation.groupby.AggregationGroupByResult;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.query.aggregation.groupby.GroupKeyGenerator;
+import org.apache.pinot.core.query.exception.EarlyTerminationException;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.util.GroupByUtils;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.util.trace.TraceRunnable;
 import org.apache.pinot.spi.utils.BytesUtils;
@@ -181,6 +182,8 @@ public void runJob() {
                 _indexedTable.upsert(key, record);
               }
             }
+          } catch (EarlyTerminationException e) {
+            // Early-terminated because query times out or is already satisfied
           } catch (Exception e) {
             LOGGER.error("Exception processing CombineGroupByOrderBy for index {}, operator {}", index,
                 _operators.get(index).getClass().getName(), e);
diff --git a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineOperator.java b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineOperator.java
index 80509161d37f..b9dcdb634c70 100644
--- a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineOperator.java
+++ b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineOperator.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 import org.apache.pinot.common.request.Selection;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.common.Operator;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.operator.blocks.IntermediateResultsBlock;
+import org.apache.pinot.core.query.exception.EarlyTerminationException;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.query.reduce.CombineService;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.util.trace.TraceCallable;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.util.trace.TraceRunnable;
@@ -117,6 +118,8 @@ public void runJob() {
               }
             }
             blockingQueue.offer(mergedBlock);
+          } catch (EarlyTerminationException e) {
+            // Early-terminated because query times out or is already satisfied
           } catch (Exception e) {
             LOGGER.error("Caught exception while executing query.", e);
             blockingQueue.offer(new IntermediateResultsBlock(e));
diff --git a/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/query/exception/EarlyTerminationException.java b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/query/exception/EarlyTerminationException.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..fe88a062ac0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pinot-core/src/main/java/org/apache/pinot/core/query/exception/EarlyTerminationException.java
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+/**
+ * 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.pinot.core.query.exception;
+
+import org.apache.pinot.core.common.Operator;
+
+
+/**
+ * The {@code EarlyTerminationException} can be thrown from {@link Operator#nextBlock()} when the operator is early
+ * terminated (interrupted).
+ */
+public class EarlyTerminationException extends RuntimeException {
+  public EarlyTerminationException() {
+    super();
+  }
+}
diff --git a/pinot-core/src/test/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineSlowOperatorsTest.java b/pinot-core/src/test/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineSlowOperatorsTest.java
index 9c4aceff575e..eebd32d10223 100644
--- a/pinot-core/src/test/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineSlowOperatorsTest.java
+++ b/pinot-core/src/test/java/org/apache/pinot/core/operator/CombineSlowOperatorsTest.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import org.apache.pinot.core.common.Operator;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.operator.blocks.IntermediateResultsBlock;
 import org.apache.pinot.core.plan.maker.InstancePlanMakerImplV2;
+import org.apache.pinot.core.query.exception.EarlyTerminationException;
 import org.apache.pinot.pql.parsers.Pql2Compiler;
 import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
 import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
@@ -83,7 +84,11 @@ public void testCombineGroupByOrderByOperator() {
     testCombineOperator(operators, combineGroupByOrderByOperator);
   }
 
-  public void testCombineOperator(List<Operator> operators, BaseOperator combineOperator) {
+  /**
+   * NOTE: It is hard to test the logger behavior, but only one error message about the query timeout should be logged
+   *       for each query.
+   */
+  private void testCombineOperator(List<Operator> operators, BaseOperator combineOperator) {
     IntermediateResultsBlock intermediateResultsBlock = (IntermediateResultsBlock) combineOperator.nextBlock();
     List<ProcessingException> processingExceptions = intermediateResultsBlock.getProcessingExceptions();
     assertNotNull(processingExceptions);
@@ -122,8 +127,8 @@ protected Block getNextBlock() {
       try {
         Thread.sleep(3_600_000L);
       } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-        // Thread should be interrupted
-        throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        // Thread should be interrupted for early-termination
+        throw new EarlyTerminationException();
       } finally {
         // Wait for 100 milliseconds before marking the operation done
         try {