diff --git a/Lib/test/test_cpickle.py b/Lib/test/test_cpickle.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_cpickle.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_cpickle.py
@@ -105,6 +105,15 @@
             n.connections.remove(n)
         self.assertRaises(RuntimeError, cPickle.dumps, n)
 
+class cPickleFlatList(unittest.TestCase):
+    '''Issue 3179. cPickle should be able to pickle a moderately sized
+    list, which does not use recursive data structures'''
+    def test_flat_list(self):
+        lst = [dict(doc=x, similar=[]) for x in range(2000)]
+        cPickle.dumps(lst)
+        
+            
+    
 def test_main():
     test_support.run_unittest(
         cPickleTests,
@@ -112,6 +121,7 @@
         cPickleListPicklerTests,
         cPickleFastPicklerTests,
         cPickleDeepRecursive,
+        cPickleFlatList,
     )
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":