diff --git a/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieMetadataPayload.java b/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieMetadataPayload.java
index 8680a8c83..2c4623b2b 100644
--- a/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieMetadataPayload.java
+++ b/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieMetadataPayload.java
@@ -321,9 +321,11 @@ public class HoodieMetadataPayload implements HoodieRecordPayload<HoodieMetadata
   private HoodieMetadataColumnStats combineColumnStatsMetadata(HoodieMetadataPayload previousRecord) {
     checkArgument(previousRecord.getColumnStatMetadata().isPresent());
     checkArgument(getColumnStatMetadata().isPresent());
-    checkArgument(previousRecord.getColumnStatMetadata().get()
-        .getFileName().equals(this.columnStatMetadata.getFileName()));
-    return HoodieTableMetadataUtil.mergeColumnStats(previousRecord.getColumnStatMetadata().get(), this.columnStatMetadata);
+
+    HoodieMetadataColumnStats previousColStatsRecord = previousRecord.getColumnStatMetadata().get();
+    HoodieMetadataColumnStats newColumnStatsRecord = getColumnStatMetadata().get();
+
+    return HoodieTableMetadataUtil.mergeColumnStats(previousColStatsRecord, newColumnStatsRecord);
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieTableMetadataUtil.java b/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieTableMetadataUtil.java
index 8f543996b..9e1db9eba 100644
--- a/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieTableMetadataUtil.java
+++ b/hudi-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hudi/metadata/HoodieTableMetadataUtil.java
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ import static org.apache.hudi.common.model.HoodieColumnRangeMetadata.Stats.TOTAL
 import static org.apache.hudi.common.model.HoodieColumnRangeMetadata.Stats.TOTAL_UNCOMPRESSED_SIZE;
 import static org.apache.hudi.common.model.HoodieColumnRangeMetadata.Stats.VALUE_COUNT;
 import static org.apache.hudi.common.util.StringUtils.isNullOrEmpty;
+import static org.apache.hudi.common.util.ValidationUtils.checkArgument;
 import static org.apache.hudi.metadata.HoodieTableMetadata.EMPTY_PARTITION_NAME;
 import static org.apache.hudi.metadata.HoodieTableMetadata.NON_PARTITIONED_NAME;
 
@@ -935,20 +936,25 @@ public class HoodieTableMetadataUtil {
     return Arrays.asList(tableConfig.getRecordKeyFields().get());
   }
 
-  public static HoodieMetadataColumnStats mergeColumnStats(HoodieMetadataColumnStats oldColumnStats, HoodieMetadataColumnStats newColumnStats) {
-    ValidationUtils.checkArgument(oldColumnStats.getFileName().equals(newColumnStats.getFileName()));
-    if (newColumnStats.getIsDeleted()) {
-      return newColumnStats;
+  public static HoodieMetadataColumnStats mergeColumnStats(HoodieMetadataColumnStats prevColumnStatsRecord,
+                                                           HoodieMetadataColumnStats newColumnStatsRecord) {
+    checkArgument(prevColumnStatsRecord.getFileName().equals(newColumnStatsRecord.getFileName()));
+    checkArgument(prevColumnStatsRecord.getColumnName().equals(newColumnStatsRecord.getColumnName()));
+
+    if (newColumnStatsRecord.getIsDeleted()) {
+      return newColumnStatsRecord;
     }
+
     return HoodieMetadataColumnStats.newBuilder()
-        .setFileName(newColumnStats.getFileName())
-        .setMinValue(Stream.of(oldColumnStats.getMinValue(), newColumnStats.getMinValue()).filter(Objects::nonNull).min(Comparator.naturalOrder()).orElse(null))
-        .setMaxValue(Stream.of(oldColumnStats.getMinValue(), newColumnStats.getMinValue()).filter(Objects::nonNull).max(Comparator.naturalOrder()).orElse(null))
-        .setValueCount(oldColumnStats.getValueCount() + newColumnStats.getValueCount())
-        .setNullCount(oldColumnStats.getNullCount() + newColumnStats.getNullCount())
-        .setTotalSize(oldColumnStats.getTotalSize() + newColumnStats.getTotalSize())
-        .setTotalUncompressedSize(oldColumnStats.getTotalUncompressedSize() + newColumnStats.getTotalUncompressedSize())
-        .setIsDeleted(newColumnStats.getIsDeleted())
+        .setFileName(newColumnStatsRecord.getFileName())
+        .setColumnName(newColumnStatsRecord.getColumnName())
+        .setMinValue(Stream.of(prevColumnStatsRecord.getMinValue(), newColumnStatsRecord.getMinValue()).filter(Objects::nonNull).min(Comparator.naturalOrder()).orElse(null))
+        .setMaxValue(Stream.of(prevColumnStatsRecord.getMinValue(), newColumnStatsRecord.getMinValue()).filter(Objects::nonNull).max(Comparator.naturalOrder()).orElse(null))
+        .setValueCount(prevColumnStatsRecord.getValueCount() + newColumnStatsRecord.getValueCount())
+        .setNullCount(prevColumnStatsRecord.getNullCount() + newColumnStatsRecord.getNullCount())
+        .setTotalSize(prevColumnStatsRecord.getTotalSize() + newColumnStatsRecord.getTotalSize())
+        .setTotalUncompressedSize(prevColumnStatsRecord.getTotalUncompressedSize() + newColumnStatsRecord.getTotalUncompressedSize())
+        .setIsDeleted(newColumnStatsRecord.getIsDeleted())
         .build();
   }
 
diff --git a/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark-common/src/main/scala/org/apache/hudi/HoodieFileIndex.scala b/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark-common/src/main/scala/org/apache/hudi/HoodieFileIndex.scala
index ea3b2f061..a9a9c1530 100644
--- a/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark-common/src/main/scala/org/apache/hudi/HoodieFileIndex.scala
+++ b/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark-common/src/main/scala/org/apache/hudi/HoodieFileIndex.scala
@@ -19,10 +19,11 @@ package org.apache.hudi
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FileStatus, Path}
 import org.apache.hudi.HoodieDatasetUtils.withPersistence
-import org.apache.hudi.HoodieFileIndex.{collectReferencedColumns, getConfigProperties}
+import org.apache.hudi.HoodieFileIndex.{DataSkippingFailureMode, collectReferencedColumns, getConfigProperties}
 import org.apache.hudi.common.config.{HoodieMetadataConfig, TypedProperties}
 import org.apache.hudi.common.table.HoodieTableMetaClient
 import org.apache.hudi.common.util.StringUtils
+import org.apache.hudi.exception.HoodieException
 import org.apache.hudi.index.columnstats.ColumnStatsIndexHelper.{getMaxColumnNameFor, getMinColumnNameFor, getNumNullsColumnNameFor}
 import org.apache.hudi.keygen.constant.KeyGeneratorOptions
 import org.apache.hudi.keygen.{TimestampBasedAvroKeyGenerator, TimestampBasedKeyGenerator}
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ case class HoodieFileIndex(spark: SparkSession,
 
   override def rootPaths: Seq[Path] = queryPaths.asScala
 
-  def isDataSkippingEnabled(): Boolean = {
+  def isDataSkippingEnabled: Boolean = {
     options.getOrElse(DataSourceReadOptions.ENABLE_DATA_SKIPPING.key(),
       spark.sessionState.conf.getConfString(DataSourceReadOptions.ENABLE_DATA_SKIPPING.key(), "false")).toBoolean
   }
@@ -123,8 +124,12 @@ case class HoodieFileIndex(spark: SparkSession,
       lookupCandidateFilesInMetadataTable(dataFilters) match {
         case Success(opt) => opt
         case Failure(e) =>
-          logError("Failed to lookup candidate files in Z-index", e)
-          Option.empty
+          logError("Failed to lookup candidate files in File Index", e)
+
+          spark.sqlContext.getConf(DataSkippingFailureMode.configName, DataSkippingFailureMode.Fallback.value) match {
+            case DataSkippingFailureMode.Fallback.value => Option.empty
+            case DataSkippingFailureMode.Strict.value   => throw new HoodieException(e);
+          }
       }
 
     logDebug(s"Overlapping candidate files from Column Stats Index: ${candidateFilesNamesOpt.getOrElse(Set.empty)}")
@@ -194,7 +199,7 @@ case class HoodieFileIndex(spark: SparkSession,
     val fs = metaClient.getFs
     val metadataTablePath = HoodieTableMetadata.getMetadataTableBasePath(basePath)
 
-    if (!isDataSkippingEnabled() || !fs.exists(new Path(metadataTablePath)) || queryFilters.isEmpty) {
+    if (!isDataSkippingEnabled || !fs.exists(new Path(metadataTablePath)) || queryFilters.isEmpty) {
       Option.empty
     } else {
       val targetColStatsIndexColumns = Seq(
@@ -302,6 +307,22 @@ case class HoodieFileIndex(spark: SparkSession,
 
 object HoodieFileIndex extends Logging {
 
+  object DataSkippingFailureMode extends Enumeration {
+    val configName = "hoodie.fileIndex.dataSkippingFailureMode"
+
+    type DataSkippingFailureMode = Value
+
+    case class Val(value: String) extends super.Val {
+      override def toString(): String = value
+    }
+
+    import scala.language.implicitConversions
+    implicit def valueToVal(x: Value): DataSkippingFailureMode = x.asInstanceOf[Val]
+
+    val Fallback: Val = Val("fallback")
+    val Strict: Val   = Val("strict")
+  }
+
   private def collectReferencedColumns(spark: SparkSession, queryFilters: Seq[Expression], schema: StructType): Seq[String] = {
     val resolver = spark.sessionState.analyzer.resolver
     val refs = queryFilters.flatMap(_.references)
diff --git a/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/TestHoodieFileIndex.scala b/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/TestHoodieFileIndex.scala
index 899fc4cc2..a11c2f73f 100644
--- a/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/TestHoodieFileIndex.scala
+++ b/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/TestHoodieFileIndex.scala
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ package org.apache.hudi
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
 import org.apache.hudi.DataSourceReadOptions.{QUERY_TYPE, QUERY_TYPE_SNAPSHOT_OPT_VAL}
 import org.apache.hudi.DataSourceWriteOptions._
+import org.apache.hudi.HoodieFileIndex.DataSkippingFailureMode
 import org.apache.hudi.client.HoodieJavaWriteClient
 import org.apache.hudi.client.common.HoodieJavaEngineContext
 import org.apache.hudi.common.config.HoodieMetadataConfig
@@ -354,6 +355,9 @@ class TestHoodieFileIndex extends HoodieClientTestBase {
       HoodieTableConfig.POPULATE_META_FIELDS.key -> "true"
     )
 
+    // If there are any failures in the Data Skipping flow, test should fail
+    spark.sqlContext.setConf(DataSkippingFailureMode.configName, DataSkippingFailureMode.Strict.value);
+
     inputDF.repartition(4)
       .write
       .format("hudi")
diff --git a/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/functional/TestLayoutOptimization.scala b/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/functional/TestLayoutOptimization.scala
index 96728f620..188ba6745 100644
--- a/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/functional/TestLayoutOptimization.scala
+++ b/hudi-spark-datasource/hudi-spark/src/test/scala/org/apache/hudi/functional/TestLayoutOptimization.scala
@@ -18,13 +18,14 @@
 
 package org.apache.hudi.functional
 
+import org.apache.hudi.HoodieFileIndex.DataSkippingFailureMode
 import org.apache.hudi.common.config.HoodieMetadataConfig
 import org.apache.hudi.common.table.HoodieTableMetaClient
 import org.apache.hudi.common.table.timeline.{HoodieInstant, HoodieTimeline}
 import org.apache.hudi.common.testutils.RawTripTestPayload.recordsToStrings
 import org.apache.hudi.config.{HoodieClusteringConfig, HoodieWriteConfig}
 import org.apache.hudi.testutils.HoodieClientTestBase
-import org.apache.hudi.{DataSourceReadOptions, DataSourceWriteOptions}
+import org.apache.hudi.{DataSourceReadOptions, DataSourceWriteOptions, HoodieFileIndex}
 import org.apache.spark.sql._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.types._
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals
@@ -92,6 +93,9 @@ class TestLayoutOptimization extends HoodieClientTestBase {
     val records = recordsToStrings(dataGen.generateInserts("001", targetRecordsCount)).toList
     val writeDf: Dataset[Row] = spark.read.json(spark.sparkContext.parallelize(records, 2))
 
+    // If there are any failures in the Data Skipping flow, test should fail
+    spark.sqlContext.setConf(DataSkippingFailureMode.configName, DataSkippingFailureMode.Strict.value);
+
     writeDf.write.format("org.apache.hudi")
       .options(commonOpts)
       .option("hoodie.compact.inline", "false")