diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/server/KRaftClusterTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/server/KRaftClusterTest.scala
index 7e74ced9a0..18402e5408 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/server/KRaftClusterTest.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/server/KRaftClusterTest.scala
@@ -1289,7 +1289,7 @@ class KRaftClusterTest {
             () => admin.createTopics(newTopics).all().get())
         assertNotNull(executionException.getCause)
         assertEquals(classOf[PolicyViolationException], executionException.getCause.getClass)
-        assertEquals("Unable to perform excessively large batch operation.",
+        assertEquals("Excessively large number of partitions per request.",
           executionException.getCause.getMessage)
       } finally {
         admin.close()
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index 88d63be550..0c14658608 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ group=org.apache.kafka
 #  - streams/quickstart/pom.xml
 #  - streams/quickstart/java/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/pom.xml
 #  - streams/quickstart/java/pom.xml
-version=3.9.0-SNAPSHOT
+version=3.9.0
 scalaVersion=2.13.14
 # Adding swaggerVersion in gradle.properties to have a single version in place for swagger
 # New version of Swagger 2.2.14 requires minimum JDK 11.
diff --git a/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManager.java b/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManager.java
index 93edecd925..7efc5386a6 100644
--- a/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManager.java
+++ b/metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManager.java
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@
  */
 public class ReplicationControlManager {
     static final int MAX_ELECTIONS_PER_IMBALANCE = 1_000;
+    static final int MAX_PARTITIONS_PER_BATCH = 10_000;
 
     static class Builder {
         private SnapshotRegistry snapshotRegistry = null;
@@ -687,6 +688,8 @@ ControllerResult<CreateTopicsResponseData> createTopics(
         Map<String, ApiError> topicErrors = new HashMap<>();
         List<ApiMessageAndVersion> records = BoundedList.newArrayBacked(MAX_RECORDS_PER_USER_OP);
 
+        validateTotalNumberOfPartitions(request, defaultNumPartitions);
+
         // Check the topic names.
         validateNewTopicNames(topicErrors, request.topics(), topicsWithCollisionChars);
 
@@ -1284,6 +1287,34 @@ ControllerResult<AlterPartitionResponseData> alterPartition(
         return ControllerResult.of(records, response);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Validates that a batch of topics will create less than {@value MAX_PARTITIONS_PER_BATCH}. Exceeding this number of topics per batch
+     * has led to out-of-memory exceptions. We use this validation to fail earlier to avoid allocating the memory.
+     * Validates an upper bound number of partitions. The actual number may be smaller if some topics are misconfigured.
+     *
+     * @param request a batch of topics to create.
+     * @param defaultNumPartitions default number of partitions to assign if unspecified.
+     * @throws PolicyViolationException if total number of partitions exceeds {@value MAX_PARTITIONS_PER_BATCH}.
+     */
+    static void validateTotalNumberOfPartitions(CreateTopicsRequestData request, int defaultNumPartitions) {
+        int totalPartitions = 0;
+        for (CreatableTopic topic: request.topics()) {
+            if (topic.assignments().isEmpty()) {
+                if (topic.numPartitions() == -1) {
+                    totalPartitions += defaultNumPartitions;
+                } else if (topic.numPartitions() > 0) {
+                    totalPartitions += topic.numPartitions();
+                }
+            } else {
+                totalPartitions += topic.assignments().size();
+            }
+
+        }
+        if (totalPartitions > MAX_PARTITIONS_PER_BATCH) {
+            throw new PolicyViolationException("Excessively large number of partitions per request.");
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Validate the partition information included in the alter partition request.
      *
diff --git a/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManagerTest.java b/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManagerTest.java
index b50d32e16b..bfc6440c4c 100644
--- a/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManagerTest.java
+++ b/metadata/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/controller/ReplicationControlManagerTest.java
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 import java.util.stream.IntStream;
+import java.util.stream.Stream;
 
 import static java.util.Arrays.asList;
 import static java.util.Collections.singletonList;
@@ -573,6 +574,44 @@ public void configure(Map<String, ?> configs) {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testExcessiveNumberOfTopicsCannotBeCreated() {
+        // number of partitions is explicitly set without assignments
+        ReplicationControlTestContext ctx = new ReplicationControlTestContext.Builder().build();
+        ReplicationControlManager replicationControl = ctx.replicationControl;
+        CreateTopicsRequestData request = new CreateTopicsRequestData();
+        request.topics().add(new CreatableTopic().setName("foo").
+                setNumPartitions(5000).setReplicationFactor((short) 1));
+        request.topics().add(new CreatableTopic().setName("bar").
+                setNumPartitions(5000).setReplicationFactor((short) 1));
+        request.topics().add(new CreatableTopic().setName("baz").
+                setNumPartitions(1).setReplicationFactor((short) 1));
+        ControllerRequestContext requestContext = anonymousContextFor(ApiKeys.CREATE_TOPICS);
+        PolicyViolationException error = assertThrows(
+                PolicyViolationException.class,
+                () -> replicationControl.createTopics(requestContext, request, Stream.of("foo", "bar", "baz").collect(Collectors.toSet())));
+        assertEquals(error.getMessage(), "Excessively large number of partitions per request.");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testExcessiveNumberOfTopicsCannotBeCreatedWithAssignments() {
+        CreateTopicsRequestData request = new CreateTopicsRequestData();
+        request.topics().add(new CreatableTopic().setName("foo").
+                setNumPartitions(-1).setReplicationFactor((short) 1));
+        CreateTopicsRequestData.CreatableReplicaAssignmentCollection assignments =
+                new CreateTopicsRequestData.CreatableReplicaAssignmentCollection();
+        assignments.add(new CreatableReplicaAssignment().setPartitionIndex(1));
+        assignments.add(new CreatableReplicaAssignment().setPartitionIndex(2));
+        request.topics().add(new CreatableTopic()
+                .setName("baz")
+                .setAssignments(assignments));
+        PolicyViolationException error = assertThrows(
+                PolicyViolationException.class,
+                () -> ReplicationControlManager.validateTotalNumberOfPartitions(request, 9999)
+        );
+        assertEquals(error.getMessage(), "Excessively large number of partitions per request.");
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testCreateTopics() {
         ReplicationControlTestContext ctx = new ReplicationControlTestContext.Builder().build();
diff --git a/streams/quickstart/java/pom.xml b/streams/quickstart/java/pom.xml
index 3cf31f1288..78e1a70fa7 100644
--- a/streams/quickstart/java/pom.xml
+++ b/streams/quickstart/java/pom.xml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>org.apache.kafka</groupId>
         <artifactId>streams-quickstart</artifactId>
-        <version>3.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>3.9.0</version>
         <relativePath>..</relativePath>
     </parent>
 
diff --git a/streams/quickstart/java/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/pom.xml b/streams/quickstart/java/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/pom.xml
index f6034a115e..2bc235eb16 100644
--- a/streams/quickstart/java/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/pom.xml
+++ b/streams/quickstart/java/src/main/resources/archetype-resources/pom.xml
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 
     <properties>
         <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-        <kafka.version>3.9.0-SNAPSHOT</kafka.version>
+        <kafka.version>3.9.0</kafka.version>
         <slf4j.version>1.7.36</slf4j.version>
     </properties>
 
diff --git a/streams/quickstart/pom.xml b/streams/quickstart/pom.xml
index 46cdea42fc..b5101583ee 100644
--- a/streams/quickstart/pom.xml
+++ b/streams/quickstart/pom.xml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
     <groupId>org.apache.kafka</groupId>
     <artifactId>streams-quickstart</artifactId>
     <packaging>pom</packaging>
-    <version>3.9.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>3.9.0</version>
 
     <name>Kafka Streams :: Quickstart</name>
 
diff --git a/tests/kafkatest/__init__.py b/tests/kafkatest/__init__.py
index a4a73838de..a190e05067 100644
--- a/tests/kafkatest/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/kafkatest/__init__.py
@@ -22,4 +22,4 @@
 # Instead, in development branches, the version should have a suffix of the form ".devN"
 #
 # For example, when Kafka is at version 1.0.0-SNAPSHOT, this should be something like "1.0.0.dev0"
-__version__ = '3.9.0.dev0'
+__version__ = '3.9.0'