diff --git a/docs/apidiffs/current_vs_latest/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver.txt b/docs/apidiffs/current_vs_latest/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver.txt
index 17fccaa45..8bc12b84f 100644
--- a/docs/apidiffs/current_vs_latest/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver.txt
+++ b/docs/apidiffs/current_vs_latest/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 Comparing source compatibility of prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver-1.8.1-SNAPSHOT.jar against prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver-1.8.0.jar
-No changes.
+***  MODIFIED CLASS: PUBLIC io.prometheus.metrics.exporter.httpserver.HTTPServer  (not serializable)
+	===  CLASS FILE FORMAT VERSION: 52.0 <- 52.0
+
diff --git a/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/BlockingRejectedExecutionHandler.java b/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/BlockingRejectedExecutionHandler.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 023d3f2f0..000000000
--- a/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/BlockingRejectedExecutionHandler.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
-package io.prometheus.metrics.exporter.httpserver;
-
-import java.util.concurrent.RejectedExecutionHandler;
-import java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor;
-
-class BlockingRejectedExecutionHandler implements RejectedExecutionHandler {
-
-  @Override
-  public void rejectedExecution(Runnable runnable, ThreadPoolExecutor threadPoolExecutor) {
-    if (!threadPoolExecutor.isShutdown()) {
-      try {
-        threadPoolExecutor.getQueue().put(runnable);
-      } catch (InterruptedException ignored) {
-        // ignore
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServer.java b/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServer.java
index e93b122b0..ff43144f0 100644
--- a/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServer.java
+++ b/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/main/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServer.java
@@ -12,14 +12,13 @@
 import io.prometheus.metrics.model.registry.PrometheusRegistry;
 import java.io.Closeable;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.net.InetAddress;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.security.PrivilegedActionException;
 import java.security.PrivilegedExceptionAction;
+import java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
-import java.util.concurrent.SynchronousQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
@@ -39,6 +38,10 @@
 @StableApi
 public class HTTPServer implements Closeable {
 
+  private static final int DEFAULT_MIN_THREADS = 10;
+  private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_THREADS = 10;
+  private static final int DEFAULT_QUEUE_SIZE = 100;
+
   static {
     if (!System.getProperties().containsKey("sun.net.httpserver.maxReqTime")) {
       System.setProperty("sun.net.httpserver.maxReqTime", "60");
@@ -153,22 +156,14 @@ public void handle(HttpExchange exchange) throws IOException {
             }
           }
         } else {
-          drainInputAndClose(exchange);
+          exchange.getRequestBody().close();
           exchange.sendResponseHeaders(403, -1);
+          exchange.close();
         }
       }
     };
   }
 
-  private void drainInputAndClose(HttpExchange httpExchange) throws IOException {
-    InputStream inputStream = httpExchange.getRequestBody();
-    byte[] b = new byte[4096];
-    while (inputStream.read(b) != -1) {
-      // nop
-    }
-    inputStream.close();
-  }
-
   /** Stop the HTTP server. Same as {@link #close()}. */
   public void stop() {
     close();
@@ -337,13 +332,12 @@ private ExecutorService makeExecutorService() {
         return executorService;
       } else {
         return new ThreadPoolExecutor(
-            1,
-            10,
+            DEFAULT_MIN_THREADS,
+            DEFAULT_MAX_THREADS,
             120,
             TimeUnit.SECONDS,
-            new SynchronousQueue<>(true),
-            NamedDaemonThreadFactory.defaultThreadFactory(true),
-            new BlockingRejectedExecutionHandler());
+            new ArrayBlockingQueue<>(DEFAULT_QUEUE_SIZE),
+            NamedDaemonThreadFactory.defaultThreadFactory(true));
       }
     }
 
diff --git a/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/test/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServerTest.java b/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/test/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServerTest.java
index ff2d55048..1106e5e19 100644
--- a/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/test/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServerTest.java
+++ b/prometheus-metrics-exporter-httpserver/src/test/java/io/prometheus/metrics/exporter/httpserver/HTTPServerTest.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import java.security.Principal;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor;
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
 import javax.security.auth.Subject;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ void setUp() {
   }
 
   @Test
-  public void testSubjectDoAs() throws Exception {
+  void testSubjectDoAs() throws Exception {
     final String user = "joe";
     final Subject subject = new Subject();
     subject.getPrincipals().add(() -> user);
@@ -158,6 +159,22 @@ void metricsCustomRootPath() throws Exception {
         "my_counter_total 1.0");
   }
 
+  @Test
+  void defaultExecutorHasBoundedQueueAndNonBlockingRejection() throws Exception {
+    HTTPServer server = HTTPServer.builder().port(0).buildAndStart();
+    try {
+      assertThat(server.executorService).isInstanceOf(ThreadPoolExecutor.class);
+      ThreadPoolExecutor executor = (ThreadPoolExecutor) server.executorService;
+      assertThat(executor.getCorePoolSize()).isEqualTo(10);
+      assertThat(executor.getMaximumPoolSize()).isEqualTo(10);
+      assertThat(executor.getQueue().remainingCapacity()).isEqualTo(100);
+      assertThat(executor.getRejectedExecutionHandler())
+          .isInstanceOf(ThreadPoolExecutor.AbortPolicy.class);
+    } finally {
+      server.stop();
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   void registryThrows() throws Exception {
     HTTPServer server =