findspark.init() IndexError: list index out of range error

This is most likely due to the SPARK_HOME environment variable not being set correctly on your system. Alternatively, you can just specify it when you're initialising findspark, like so:

import findspark
findspark.init('/path/to/spark/home')

After that, it should all work!

I was getting the same error and was able to make it work by entering the exact installation directory:

import findspark
# Use this
findspark.init("C:\Users\PolestarEmployee\spark-1.6.3-bin-hadoop2.6")
# Test
from pyspark import SparkContext, SparkConf

Basically, it is the directory where spark was extracted. In future where ever you see spark_home enter the same installation directory. I also tried using toree to create a kernal instead, but it is failing somehow. A kernal would be a cleaner solution.

You need to update the SPARK_HOME variable inside bash_profile. For me, the following command worked(in terminal):

export SPARK_HOME="/usr/local/Cellar/apache-spark/2.2.0/libexec/"

After this, you can use follow these commands:

import findspark
findspark.init('/usr/local/Cellar/apache-spark/2.2.0/libexec')