diff --git a/sql/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/CatalogSuite.scala b/sql/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/CatalogSuite.scala
index e8ccc9f083c63..5237554b3625d 100644
--- a/sql/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/CatalogSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/CatalogSuite.scala
@@ -163,6 +163,27 @@ class CatalogSuite extends ConnectFunSuite with RemoteSparkSession with SQLHelpe
     }
   }
 
+  test("createTable(tableName, path) uses spark.sql.sources.default") {
+    val tableName = "default_source_table"
+    withSQLConf("spark.sql.sources.default" -> "json") {
+      withTable(tableName) {
+        withTempPath { dir =>
+          val session = spark
+          import session.implicits._
+          // Write the data as JSON. If createTable hardcoded the parquet provider, reading the
+          // table back would fail because the files are not parquet.
+          Seq((1, "a")).toDF("id", "value").write.json(dir.getPath)
+          spark.catalog.createTable(tableName, dir.getPath)
+          assert(spark.catalog.tableExists(tableName))
+          val ddl = spark.catalog.getCreateTableString(tableName)
+          assert(ddl.toLowerCase(java.util.Locale.ROOT).contains("using json"))
+          // Reading the table back succeeds only if it was created with the json provider.
+          assert(spark.table(tableName).count() == 1)
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   test("Cache Table APIs") {
     val parquetTableName = "parquet_table"
     withTable(parquetTableName) {
diff --git a/sql/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/Catalog.scala b/sql/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/Catalog.scala
index 2324ca05d7b7f..ce7a10c4026c2 100644
--- a/sql/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/Catalog.scala
+++ b/sql/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/Catalog.scala
@@ -392,7 +392,15 @@ class Catalog(sparkSession: SparkSession) extends catalog.Catalog {
    * @since 3.5.0
    */
   override def createTable(tableName: String, path: String): DataFrame = {
-    createTable(tableName, path, "parquet")
+    // Leave the source unset so the server resolves spark.sql.sources.default, as documented
+    // above. Routing through createTable(tableName, path, "parquet") would hardcode the provider
+    // and ignore that configuration.
+    createTable(
+      tableName = tableName,
+      source = None,
+      schema = new StructType,
+      description = "",
+      options = Map("path" -> path))
   }
 
   /**
@@ -478,12 +486,26 @@ class Catalog(sparkSession: SparkSession) extends catalog.Catalog {
       schema: StructType,
       description: String,
       options: Map[String, String]): DataFrame = {
+    createTable(tableName, Some(source), schema, description, options)
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Shared implementation for the public `createTable` overloads. When `source` is `None`, the
+   * proto's `source` field is left unset so the server resolves `spark.sql.sources.default`;
+   * otherwise the provided source is pinned via `setSource`.
+   */
+  private def createTable(
+      tableName: String,
+      source: Option[String],
+      schema: StructType,
+      description: String,
+      options: Map[String, String]): DataFrame = {
     sparkSession.execute { builder =>
       val createTableBuilder = builder.getCatalogBuilder.getCreateTableBuilder
         .setTableName(tableName)
-        .setSource(source)
         .setSchema(DataTypeProtoConverter.toConnectProtoType(schema))
         .setDescription(description)
+      source.foreach(createTableBuilder.setSource)
       options.foreach { case (k, v) =>
         createTableBuilder.putOptions(k, v)
       }