diff --git a/presubmit_canned_checks.py b/presubmit_canned_checks.py
index 2c96eb12a4..4120f45cfa 100644
--- a/presubmit_canned_checks.py
+++ b/presubmit_canned_checks.py
@@ -1071,6 +1071,7 @@ def GetPylint(input_api,
   env['PYTHONPATH'] = input_api.os_path.pathsep.join(extra_paths_list)
   env.pop('VPYTHON_CLEAR_PYTHONPATH', None)
   input_api.logging.debug('  with extra PYTHONPATH: %r', extra_paths_list)
+  files_per_job = 10
 
   def GetPylintCmd(flist, extra, parallel):
     # Windows needs help running python files so we explicitly specify
@@ -1103,9 +1104,10 @@ def GetPylint(input_api,
       # Make sure we don't request more parallelism than is justified for the
       # number of files we have to process. PyLint child-process startup time is
       # significant.
-      jobs = min(input_api.cpu_count, 1 + len(flist) // 10)
-      args.append('--jobs=%s' % jobs)
-      description += ' on %d processes' % jobs
+      jobs = min(input_api.cpu_count, 1 + len(flist) // files_per_job)
+      if jobs > 1:
+        args.append('--jobs=%s' % jobs)
+        description += ' on %d processes' % jobs
 
     kwargs['stdin'] = '\n'.join(args + flist)
     if input_api.sys.version_info.major != 2:
@@ -1119,9 +1121,11 @@ def GetPylint(input_api,
         python3=not python2)
 
   # pylint's cycle detection doesn't work in parallel, so spawn a second,
-  # single-threaded job for just that check.
+  # single-threaded job for just that check. However, only do this if there are
+  # actually enough files to process to justify parallelism in the first place.
   # Some PRESUBMITs explicitly mention cycle detection.
-  if not any('R0401' in a or 'cyclic-import' in a for a in extra_args):
+  if len(files) >= files_per_job and not any(
+      'R0401' in a or 'cyclic-import' in a for a in extra_args):
     tests = [
       GetPylintCmd(files, ["--disable=cyclic-import"], True),
       GetPylintCmd(files, ["--disable=all", "--enable=cyclic-import"], False),
diff --git a/tests/presubmit_unittest.py b/tests/presubmit_unittest.py
index fc095b9dff..8795b22cb1 100755
--- a/tests/presubmit_unittest.py
+++ b/tests/presubmit_unittest.py
@@ -2456,18 +2456,10 @@ the current line as well!
             [pylint, '--args-on-stdin'], env=env,
             cwd='CWD', stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
             stdin=subprocess.PIPE),
-        mock.call(
-            [pylint, '--args-on-stdin'], env=env,
-            cwd='CWD', stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
-            stdin=subprocess.PIPE),
     ])
     self.assertEqual(presubmit.sigint_handler.wait.mock_calls, [
-        mock.call(
-            process,
-            ('--rcfile=%s\n--disable=all\n--enable=cyclic-import\nfile1.py' %
-             pylintrc).encode('utf-8')),
         mock.call(process,
-                  ('--rcfile=%s\n--disable=cyclic-import\n--jobs=1\nfile1.py' %
+                  ('--rcfile=%s\nfile1.py' %
                    pylintrc).encode('utf-8')),
     ])