diff --git a/paimon-common/src/main/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogContext.java b/paimon-common/src/main/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogContext.java
index 9eb8a5538920..d53fe9a5b54f 100644
--- a/paimon-common/src/main/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogContext.java
+++ b/paimon-common/src/main/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogContext.java
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ public class CatalogContext implements Serializable {
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
 
     private final Options options;
-    private final SerializableConfiguration hadoopConf;
+    @Nullable private final SerializableConfiguration hadoopConf;
     @Nullable private final FileIOLoader preferIOLoader;
     @Nullable private final FileIOLoader fallbackIOLoader;
 
@@ -55,9 +55,7 @@ private CatalogContext(
             @Nullable FileIOLoader preferIOLoader,
             @Nullable FileIOLoader fallbackIOLoader) {
         this.options = checkNotNull(options);
-        this.hadoopConf =
-                new SerializableConfiguration(
-                        hadoopConf == null ? getHadoopConfiguration(options) : hadoopConf);
+        this.hadoopConf = loadHadoopConfiguration(options, hadoopConf);
         this.preferIOLoader = preferIOLoader;
         this.fallbackIOLoader = fallbackIOLoader;
     }
@@ -99,9 +97,32 @@ public Options options() {
 
     /** Return hadoop {@link Configuration}. */
     public Configuration hadoopConf() {
+        if (hadoopConf == null) {
+            throw new IllegalStateException(
+                    "Hadoop configuration is not available for this CatalogContext.");
+        }
         return hadoopConf.get();
     }
 
+    @Nullable
+    private static SerializableConfiguration loadHadoopConfiguration(
+            Options options, @Nullable Configuration hadoopConf) {
+        try {
+            return new SerializableConfiguration(
+                    hadoopConf == null ? getHadoopConfiguration(options) : hadoopConf);
+        } catch (NoClassDefFoundError e) {
+            if (isHadoopClassNotFound(e)) {
+                return null;
+            }
+            throw e;
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static boolean isHadoopClassNotFound(NoClassDefFoundError e) {
+        String message = e.getMessage();
+        return message != null && message.startsWith("org/apache/hadoop/");
+    }
+
     @Nullable
     public FileIOLoader preferIO() {
         return preferIOLoader;
diff --git a/paimon-core/src/test/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogFactoryTest.java b/paimon-core/src/test/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogFactoryTest.java
index 7f93b8d61c55..03d18e9ceb26 100644
--- a/paimon-core/src/test/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogFactoryTest.java
+++ b/paimon-core/src/test/java/org/apache/paimon/catalog/CatalogFactoryTest.java
@@ -24,13 +24,20 @@
 import org.apache.paimon.table.CatalogTableType;
 import org.apache.paimon.utils.HadoopUtilsITCase.TestFileIOLoader;
 import org.apache.paimon.utils.InstantiationUtil;
+import org.apache.paimon.utils.TraceableFileIO;
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.HdfsConfiguration;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.io.TempDir;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLClassLoader;
+import java.util.Arrays;
 
 import static org.apache.paimon.options.CatalogOptions.TABLE_TYPE;
 import static org.apache.paimon.options.CatalogOptions.WAREHOUSE;
@@ -87,6 +94,26 @@ public void testContextDefaultHadoopConf(@TempDir java.nio.file.Path path) {
         assertThat(conf.get("dfs.replication")).isEqualTo(replication);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testCreateCatalogWithoutHadoopClasses(@TempDir java.nio.file.Path path)
+            throws Exception {
+        try (URLClassLoader classLoader = new NoHadoopClassLoader(testClasspathWithoutHadoop())) {
+            Class<?> runner =
+                    Class.forName(NoHadoopCatalogContextRunner.class.getName(), true, classLoader);
+            runner.getMethod("run", String.class, ClassLoader.class)
+                    .invoke(
+                            null,
+                            new Path(path.toUri().toString(), "warehouse").toString(),
+                            classLoader);
+        } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
+            Throwable cause = e.getCause();
+            if (cause instanceof Exception) {
+                throw (Exception) cause;
+            }
+            throw (Error) cause;
+        }
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testContextSerializable() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
         Configuration conf = new Configuration(false);
@@ -97,4 +124,56 @@ public void testContextSerializable() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException
         context = InstantiationUtil.clone(context);
         assertThat(context.hadoopConf().get("my_key")).isEqualTo(conf.get("my_key"));
     }
+
+    private static URL[] testClasspathWithoutHadoop() {
+        return Arrays.stream(System.getProperty("java.class.path").split(File.pathSeparator))
+                .filter(path -> !path.contains("/hadoop-"))
+                .filter(path -> !path.contains("/htrace-core"))
+                .filter(path -> !path.contains("/woodstox-core"))
+                .filter(path -> !path.contains("/stax2-api"))
+                .map(
+                        path -> {
+                            try {
+                                return new File(path).toURI().toURL();
+                            } catch (IOException e) {
+                                throw new RuntimeException(e);
+                            }
+                        })
+                .toArray(URL[]::new);
+    }
+
+    private static class NoHadoopClassLoader extends URLClassLoader {
+
+        private NoHadoopClassLoader(URL[] urls) {
+            super(urls, ClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader().getParent());
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        protected Class<?> loadClass(String name, boolean resolve) throws ClassNotFoundException {
+            if (name.startsWith("org.apache.hadoop.")) {
+                throw new ClassNotFoundException(name);
+            }
+            return super.loadClass(name, resolve);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /** Runner loaded by {@link NoHadoopClassLoader} to verify no-Hadoop catalog creation. */
+    public static class NoHadoopCatalogContextRunner {
+
+        public static void run(String warehouse, ClassLoader classLoader) throws Exception {
+            assertThatThrownBy(() -> classLoader.loadClass("org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration"))
+                    .isInstanceOf(ClassNotFoundException.class);
+
+            Options options = new Options();
+            options.set("warehouse", warehouse);
+            CatalogContext context =
+                    CatalogContext.create(options, new TraceableFileIO.Loader(), null);
+            Catalog catalog = CatalogFactory.createCatalog(context, classLoader);
+
+            assertThat(catalog.listDatabases()).isEmpty();
+            Field hadoopConfField = CatalogContext.class.getDeclaredField("hadoopConf");
+            hadoopConfField.setAccessible(true);
+            assertThat(hadoopConfField.get(context)).isNull();
+        }
+    }
 }