diff --git a/external/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroDeserializer.scala b/external/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroDeserializer.scala
index 958e9477f9d8..50db6348923c 100644
--- a/external/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroDeserializer.scala
+++ b/external/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroDeserializer.scala
@@ -167,14 +167,13 @@ class AvroDeserializer(rootAvroType: Schema, rootCatalystType: DataType) {
       case (ARRAY, ArrayType(elementType, containsNull)) =>
         val elementWriter = newWriter(avroType.getElementType, elementType, path)
         (updater, ordinal, value) =>
-          val array = value.asInstanceOf[GenericData.Array[Any]]
+          val array = value.asInstanceOf[java.util.Collection[Any]]
           val len = array.size()
           val result = createArrayData(elementType, len)
           val elementUpdater = new ArrayDataUpdater(result)
 
           var i = 0
-          while (i < len) {
-            val element = array.get(i)
+          for (element <- array.asScala) {
             if (element == null) {
               if (!containsNull) {
                 throw new RuntimeException(s"Array value at path ${path.mkString(".")} is not " +
diff --git a/external/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroCatalystDataConversionSuite.scala b/external/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroCatalystDataConversionSuite.scala
index 4b39e711aa28..c8a1f670bda9 100644
--- a/external/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroCatalystDataConversionSuite.scala
+++ b/external/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroCatalystDataConversionSuite.scala
@@ -17,7 +17,12 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.avro
 
+import java.util
+import java.util.Collections
+
 import org.apache.avro.Schema
+import org.apache.avro.generic.{GenericData, GenericRecordBuilder}
+import org.apache.avro.message.{BinaryMessageDecoder, BinaryMessageEncoder}
 
 import org.apache.spark.{SparkException, SparkFunSuite}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{RandomDataGenerator, Row}
@@ -127,6 +132,26 @@ class AvroCatalystDataConversionSuite extends SparkFunSuite
     }
   }
 
+  test("array of nested schema with seed") {
+    val seed = scala.util.Random.nextLong()
+    val rand = new scala.util.Random(seed)
+    val schema = StructType(
+      StructField("a",
+        ArrayType(
+          RandomDataGenerator.randomNestedSchema(rand, 10, testingTypes),
+          containsNull = false),
+        nullable = false
+      ) :: Nil
+    )
+
+    withClue(s"Schema: $schema\nseed: $seed") {
+      val data = RandomDataGenerator.randomRow(rand, schema)
+      val converter = CatalystTypeConverters.createToCatalystConverter(schema)
+      val input = Literal.create(converter(data), schema)
+      roundTripTest(input)
+    }
+  }
+
   test("read int as string") {
     val data = Literal(1)
     val avroTypeJson =
@@ -246,4 +271,46 @@ class AvroCatalystDataConversionSuite extends SparkFunSuite
     }.getMessage
     assert(message ==  "Cannot convert Catalyst type StringType to Avro type \"long\".")
   }
+
+  test("avro array can be generic java collection") {
+    val jsonFormatSchema =
+      """
+        |{ "type": "record",
+        |  "name": "record",
+        |  "fields" : [{
+        |    "name": "array",
+        |    "type": {
+        |      "type": "array",
+        |      "items": ["null", "int"]
+        |    }
+        |  }]
+        |}
+      """.stripMargin
+    val avroSchema = new Schema.Parser().parse(jsonFormatSchema)
+    val dataType = SchemaConverters.toSqlType(avroSchema).dataType
+    val deserializer = new AvroDeserializer(avroSchema, dataType)
+
+    def checkDeserialization(data: GenericData.Record, expected: Any): Unit = {
+      assert(checkResult(
+        expected,
+        deserializer.deserialize(data),
+        dataType, exprNullable = false
+      ))
+    }
+
+    def validateDeserialization(array: java.util.Collection[Integer]): Unit = {
+      val data = new GenericRecordBuilder(avroSchema)
+        .set("array", array)
+        .build()
+      val expected = InternalRow(new GenericArrayData(new util.ArrayList[Any](array)))
+      checkDeserialization(data, expected)
+
+      val reEncoded = new BinaryMessageDecoder[GenericData.Record](new GenericData(), avroSchema)
+        .decode(new BinaryMessageEncoder(new GenericData(), avroSchema).encode(data))
+      checkDeserialization(reEncoded, expected)
+    }
+
+    validateDeserialization(Collections.emptySet())
+    validateDeserialization(util.Arrays.asList(1, null, 3))
+  }
 }