diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveInspectors.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveInspectors.scala
index a6b8ead577fb56b9d3e00595aaa7f05cb83e1163..7423d8030f2b5ab5ee0306535b13bb1484290feb 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveInspectors.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveInspectors.scala
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.{io => hadoopIo}
 
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.DateTimeUtils
-import org.apache.spark.sql.types
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
+import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, types}
 import org.apache.spark.unsafe.types.UTF8String
 
 /* Implicit conversions */
@@ -218,6 +218,14 @@ private[hive] trait HiveInspectors {
 
     // Hive seems to return this for struct types?
     case c: Class[_] if c == classOf[java.lang.Object] => NullType
+
+    // java list type unsupported
+    case c: Class[_] if c == classOf[java.util.List[_]] =>
+      throw new AnalysisException(
+        "List type in java is unsupported because " +
+        "JVM type erasure makes spark fail to catch a component type in List<>")
+
+    case c => throw new AnalysisException(s"Unsupported java type $c")
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/UDFToListInt.java b/sql/hive/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/UDFToListInt.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..67576a72f1980d288fba64fb775a3c12e6cc4e91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/UDFToListInt.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.execution;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.UDF;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
+public class UDFToListInt extends UDF {
+    public List<Integer> evaluate(Object o) {
+        return Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/UDFToListString.java b/sql/hive/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/UDFToListString.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f02395cbba88b4baf9ed732e2e487cd702ac0208
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/UDFToListString.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.execution;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.UDF;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
+public class UDFToListString extends UDF {
+    public List<String> evaluate(Object o) {
+        return Arrays.asList("data1", "data2", "data3");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveUDFSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveUDFSuite.scala
index 56b0bef1d0571418dd4c3e67fc8d83be9dc894f0..44686204c2af7e579b71e158a1426cb88110f92a 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveUDFSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveUDFSuite.scala
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.objectinspector.primitive.PrimitiveObjectIn
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.objectinspector.{ObjectInspector, ObjectInspectorFactory}
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.{AbstractSerDe, SerDeStats}
 import org.apache.hadoop.io.Writable
-import org.apache.spark.sql.{QueryTest, Row}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.{AnalysisException, QueryTest, Row}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.test.TestHive
 
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
@@ -133,6 +133,36 @@ class HiveUDFSuite extends QueryTest {
     TestHive.reset()
   }
 
+  test("UDFToListString") {
+    val testData = TestHive.sparkContext.parallelize(StringCaseClass("") :: Nil).toDF()
+    testData.registerTempTable("inputTable")
+
+    sql(s"CREATE TEMPORARY FUNCTION testUDFToListString AS '${classOf[UDFToListString].getName}'")
+    val errMsg = intercept[AnalysisException] {
+      sql("SELECT testUDFToListString(s) FROM inputTable")
+    }
+    assert(errMsg.getMessage === "List type in java is unsupported because " +
+      "JVM type erasure makes spark fail to catch a component type in List<>;")
+
+    sql("DROP TEMPORARY FUNCTION IF EXISTS testUDFToListString")
+    TestHive.reset()
+  }
+
+  test("UDFToListInt") {
+    val testData = TestHive.sparkContext.parallelize(StringCaseClass("") :: Nil).toDF()
+    testData.registerTempTable("inputTable")
+
+    sql(s"CREATE TEMPORARY FUNCTION testUDFToListInt AS '${classOf[UDFToListInt].getName}'")
+    val errMsg = intercept[AnalysisException] {
+      sql("SELECT testUDFToListInt(s) FROM inputTable")
+    }
+    assert(errMsg.getMessage === "List type in java is unsupported because " +
+      "JVM type erasure makes spark fail to catch a component type in List<>;")
+
+    sql("DROP TEMPORARY FUNCTION IF EXISTS testUDFToListInt")
+    TestHive.reset()
+  }
+
   test("UDFListListInt") {
     val testData = TestHive.sparkContext.parallelize(
       ListListIntCaseClass(Nil) ::