diff --git a/Jenkinsfile b/Jenkinsfile
index 85dd0e2f8bb92..cfdf72268f363 100644
--- a/Jenkinsfile
+++ b/Jenkinsfile
@@ -142,26 +142,6 @@ pipeline {
           }
         }
 
-        // Remove this when all tests pass with JDK 16
-        stage('JDK 15 and Scala 2.13') {
-          agent { label 'ubuntu' }
-          tools {
-            jdk 'jdk_15_latest'
-          }
-          options {
-            timeout(time: 8, unit: 'HOURS') 
-            timestamps()
-          }
-          environment {
-            SCALA_VERSION=2.13
-          }
-          steps {
-            doValidation()
-            doTest(env)
-            echo 'Skipping Kafka Streams archetype test for Java 15'
-          }
-        }
-
         stage('JDK 16 and Scala 2.13') {
           agent { label 'ubuntu' }
           tools {
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2ee837174b09c..a4fd037ce8824 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ See our [web site](https://kafka.apache.org) for details on the project.
 
 You need to have [Java](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html) installed.
 
-We build and test Apache Kafka with Java 8, 11 and 15. We set the `release` parameter in javac and scalac
+We build and test Apache Kafka with Java 8, 11 and 16. We set the `release` parameter in javac and scalac
 to `8` to ensure the generated binaries are compatible with Java 8 or higher (independently of the Java version
 used for compilation).
 
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 208d0c752e7f6..274032471c36b 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ plugins {
   id 'org.nosphere.apache.rat' version "0.7.0"
 
   id "com.github.spotbugs" version '4.7.1' apply false
-  id 'org.gradle.test-retry' version '1.2.1' apply false
+  id 'org.gradle.test-retry' version '1.3.1' apply false
   id 'org.scoverage' version '5.0.0' apply false
   id 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadow' version '7.0.0' apply false
 }
diff --git a/gradle/dependencies.gradle b/gradle/dependencies.gradle
index 4cfa39ebf09d9..58f9963b78164 100644
--- a/gradle/dependencies.gradle
+++ b/gradle/dependencies.gradle
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ versions += [
   checkstyle: "8.36.2",
   commonsCli: "1.4",
   dropwizardMetrics: "3.2.5",
-  gradle: "7.0.2",
+  gradle: "7.1.1",
   grgit: "4.1.0",
   httpclient: "4.5.13",
   easymock: "4.3",
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index e1e2fd2c75e69..17ba19021b848 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionSha256Sum=13bf8d3cf8eeeb5770d19741a59bde9bd966dd78d17f1bbad787a05ef19d1c2d
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.0.2-all.zip
+distributionSha256Sum=9bb8bc05f562f2d42bdf1ba8db62f6b6fa1c3bf6c392228802cc7cb0578fe7e0
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.1.1-all.zip
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index 852728359c3cf..2a99f44948c97 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ esac
 # Loop in case we encounter an error.
 for attempt in 1 2 3; do
   if [ ! -e "$APP_HOME/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar" ]; then
-    if ! curl -s -S --retry 3 -L -o "$APP_HOME/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar" "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gradle/gradle/v7.0.2/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar"; then
+    if ! curl -s -S --retry 3 -L -o "$APP_HOME/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar" "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gradle/gradle/v7.1.1/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar"; then
       rm -f "$APP_HOME/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar"
       # Pause for a bit before looping in case the server throttled us.
       sleep 5