diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala
index 873221835daf..0f27fd13e737 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonRDD.scala
@@ -287,9 +287,13 @@ private[sql] object JsonRDD extends Logging {
       // the ObjectMapper will take the last value associated with this duplicate key.
       // For example: for {"key": 1, "key":2}, we will get "key"->2.
       val mapper = new ObjectMapper()
-      iter.map { record =>
-        val parsed = scalafy(mapper.readValue(record, classOf[java.util.Map[String, Any]]))
-        parsed.asInstanceOf[Map[String, Any]]
+      iter.flatMap { record =>
+        val parsed = mapper.readValue(record, classOf[Object]) match {
+          case map: java.util.Map[_, _] => scalafy(map).asInstanceOf[Map[String, Any]] :: Nil
+          case list: java.util.List[_] => scalafy(list).asInstanceOf[Seq[Map[String, Any]]]
+        }
+
+        parsed
       }
     })
   }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala
index b50d93855405..685e78820772 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/JsonSuite.scala
@@ -622,4 +622,21 @@ class JsonSuite extends QueryTest {
       ("str1", Nil, "str4", 2) :: Nil
     )
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-3308 Read top level JSON arrays") {
+    val jsonSchemaRDD = jsonRDD(jsonArray)
+    jsonSchemaRDD.registerTempTable("jsonTable")
+
+    checkAnswer(
+      sql(
+        """
+          |select a, b, c
+          |from jsonTable
+        """.stripMargin),
+      ("str_a_1", null, null) ::
+      ("str_a_2", null, null) ::
+      (null, "str_b_3", null) ::
+      ("str_a_4", "str_b_4", "str_c_4") ::Nil
+    )
+  }
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala
index 5f0b3959a63a..fc833b8b54e4 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/json/TestJsonData.scala
@@ -136,4 +136,11 @@ object TestJsonData {
             ]
           ]]
       }""" :: Nil)
+
+  val jsonArray =
+    TestSQLContext.sparkContext.parallelize(
+      """[{"a":"str_a_1"}]""" ::
+      """[{"a":"str_a_2"}, {"b":"str_b_3"}]""" ::
+      """{"b":"str_b_4", "a":"str_a_4", "c":"str_c_4"}""" ::
+      """[]""" :: Nil)
 }