diff --git a/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/mod.rs b/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/mod.rs
index f92b9852..c3324ba0 100644
--- a/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/mod.rs
+++ b/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/mod.rs
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ use datafusion::{
 
 use crate::LiquidCacheLocalBuilder;
 mod date_optimizer;
+mod page_index;
 mod squeeze;
 mod variants;
 
diff --git a/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/page_index.rs b/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/page_index.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..92ad17ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/datafusion-local/src/tests/page_index.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+//! The parquet page index (ColumnIndex / OffsetIndex) is an optional footer
+//! structure. Scans must not depend on it being present: it drives page-level
+//! pruning, which degrades to row-group granularity when it is missing.
+
+use std::{fs::File, io::Write, path::Path, sync::Arc};
+
+use arrow::array::{ArrayRef, Int64Array, RecordBatch, StringArray};
+use arrow::util::pretty::pretty_format_batches;
+use arrow_schema::{DataType, Field, Schema};
+use datafusion::prelude::{ParquetReadOptions, SessionConfig, SessionContext};
+use parquet::{
+    arrow::ArrowWriter,
+    arrow::arrow_reader::{ArrowReaderMetadata, ArrowReaderOptions},
+    file::metadata::{PageIndexPolicy, ParquetMetaDataWriter},
+    file::properties::{EnabledStatistics, WriterProperties},
+    file::writer::TrackedWrite,
+};
+use tempfile::TempDir;
+
+use crate::LiquidCacheLocalBuilder;
+
+/// Write a parquet file that advertises a column index but no offset index.
+///
+/// A file carrying *no* page index at all is not enough to exercise this: the
+/// reader skips page index parsing entirely when no column chunk declares an
+/// index range, so even `PageIndexPolicy::Required` accepts it. The failure
+/// needs an index range to exist while a chunk's offset index is absent.
+///
+/// Writers expose no knob for that combination, so the file is produced by
+/// writing a fully indexed one and re-encoding only its footer with each
+/// chunk's offset-index pointer cleared. Data pages and the original column
+/// index blobs are kept byte-for-byte, so the surviving column-index pointers
+/// still resolve.
+fn write_parquet_without_offset_index(dir: &Path) -> String {
+    let schema = Arc::new(Schema::new(vec![
+        Field::new("id", DataType::Int64, false),
+        Field::new("name", DataType::Utf8, false),
+    ]));
+    let ids: ArrayRef = Arc::new(Int64Array::from(vec![1, 2, 3, 4, 5]));
+    let names: ArrayRef = Arc::new(StringArray::from(vec!["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]));
+    let batch = RecordBatch::try_new(Arc::clone(&schema), vec![ids, names]).expect("batch");
+
+    // Page-level statistics make the writer emit both index structures.
+    let props = WriterProperties::builder()
+        .set_statistics_enabled(EnabledStatistics::Page)
+        .build();
+    let mut indexed = Vec::new();
+    let mut writer = ArrowWriter::try_new(&mut indexed, schema, Some(props)).expect("writer");
+    writer.write(&batch).expect("write");
+    writer.close().expect("close");
+
+    let base_path = dir.join("indexed.parquet");
+    std::fs::write(&base_path, &indexed).expect("write base file");
+    let base = File::open(&base_path).expect("open base file");
+    let metadata = ArrowReaderMetadata::load(
+        &base,
+        ArrowReaderOptions::new().with_page_index_policy(PageIndexPolicy::Optional),
+    )
+    .expect("load base metadata");
+    let metadata = metadata.metadata().as_ref().clone();
+    assert!(
+        metadata.column_index().is_some() && metadata.offset_index().is_some(),
+        "base fixture should be fully indexed"
+    );
+
+    // Keep everything up to the footer — data pages and index blobs alike.
+    // Layout is `... | footer | footer_len:u32 | "PAR1"`.
+    let len = indexed.len();
+    let footer_len = u32::from_le_bytes(indexed[len - 8..len - 4].try_into().unwrap()) as usize;
+    let prefix_end = len - 8 - footer_len;
+
+    // Clear each chunk's offset-index pointer, and drop the parsed indexes so
+    // the writer re-emits neither blob. Column-index pointers stay, keeping the
+    // file's page index range non-empty.
+    let row_groups: Vec<_> = metadata
+        .row_groups()
+        .iter()
+        .map(|rg| {
+            let columns: Vec<_> = rg
+                .columns()
+                .iter()
+                .map(|c| {
+                    c.clone()
+                        .into_builder()
+                        .set_offset_index_offset(None)
+                        .set_offset_index_length(None)
+                        .build()
+                        .expect("rebuild column chunk")
+                })
+                .collect();
+            rg.clone()
+                .into_builder()
+                .set_column_metadata(columns)
+                .build()
+                .expect("rebuild row group")
+        })
+        .collect();
+    let stripped = metadata
+        .into_builder()
+        .set_row_groups(row_groups)
+        .set_offset_index(None)
+        .set_column_index(None)
+        .build();
+
+    let mut out = Vec::new();
+    let mut tracked = TrackedWrite::new(&mut out);
+    tracked.write_all(&indexed[..prefix_end]).expect("prefix");
+    ParquetMetaDataWriter::new_with_tracked(tracked, &stripped)
+        .finish()
+        .expect("rewrite footer");
+
+    let path = dir.join("no_offset_index.parquet");
+    std::fs::write(&path, &out).expect("write fixture");
+    path.to_str().expect("utf8 path").to_string()
+}
+
+/// Guards the premise: the fixture must be the shape that `Required` rejects,
+/// otherwise the scan test below would pass vacuously.
+#[test]
+fn fixture_is_rejected_by_required_policy() {
+    let dir = TempDir::new().unwrap();
+    let path = write_parquet_without_offset_index(dir.path());
+    let file = File::open(&path).unwrap();
+
+    let err = ArrowReaderMetadata::load(
+        &file,
+        ArrowReaderOptions::new().with_page_index_policy(PageIndexPolicy::Required),
+    )
+    .expect_err("fixture should be rejected under Required");
+    assert!(
+        err.to_string().contains("missing offset index"),
+        "unexpected error: {err}"
+    );
+}
+
+/// Scanning such a file through LiquidCache must succeed. The predicate matters:
+/// it is what builds the page-pruning predicate that consults the index.
+///
+/// Requires `direct_io`, so this runs on Linux/CI rather than every dev machine
+/// — the same constraint as the rest of the cache-backed tests here.
+#[tokio::test]
+async fn scans_file_without_offset_index() {
+    let dir = TempDir::new().unwrap();
+    let file_path = write_parquet_without_offset_index(dir.path());
+    let cache_dir = TempDir::new().unwrap();
+
+    let mut config = SessionConfig::new();
+    config.options_mut().execution.target_partitions = 1;
+    let (ctx, cache) = LiquidCacheLocalBuilder::new()
+        .with_max_memory_bytes(1024 * 1024)
+        .with_cache_dir(cache_dir.path().to_path_buf())
+        .build(config)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    ctx.register_parquet("no_offset_index", &file_path, ParquetReadOptions::default())
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    async fn run(ctx: &SessionContext) -> String {
+        let batches = ctx
+            .sql("SELECT id, name FROM no_offset_index WHERE id > 2 ORDER BY id")
+            .await
+            .unwrap()
+            .collect()
+            .await
+            .expect("scanning a file without an offset index should succeed");
+        pretty_format_batches(&batches).unwrap().to_string()
+    }
+
+    let expected = "\
++----+------+
+| id | name |
++----+------+
+| 3  | c    |
+| 4  | d    |
+| 5  | e    |
++----+------+";
+
+    assert_eq!(run(&ctx).await, expected);
+    // Again, now served from the cache, covering the warm path too.
+    assert_eq!(run(&ctx).await, expected);
+
+    // The scan must actually have gone through LiquidCache. Without this the
+    // test would still pass if the plan stopped being rewritten to
+    // `LiquidParquetSource` — i.e. it would silently stop covering the reader
+    // whose policy this test exists to pin.
+    let stats = cache.storage().stats();
+    assert!(
+        stats.total_entries > 0,
+        "expected the scan to populate LiquidCache, got {stats:?}"
+    );
+}
diff --git a/src/datafusion/src/reader/plantime/opener.rs b/src/datafusion/src/reader/plantime/opener.rs
index b1b7e836..9a71c1df 100644
--- a/src/datafusion/src/reader/plantime/opener.rs
+++ b/src/datafusion/src/reader/plantime/opener.rs
@@ -176,8 +176,14 @@ impl FileOpener for LiquidParquetOpener {
 
             file_metrics.files_ranges_pruned_statistics.add_matched(1);
 
+            // `Optional`, not `Required`: the page index is an optimization, not
+            // a correctness requirement. It drives page-level pruning below,
+            // which no-ops when the index is absent. `Required` instead fails
+            // the whole read with `missing offset index` on any file that
+            // advertises a page index while one of its column chunks carries no
+            // offset index — a shape valid parquet is free to have.
             let mut options = ArrowReaderOptions::new()
-                .with_page_index_policy(parquet::file::metadata::PageIndexPolicy::Required);
+                .with_page_index_policy(parquet::file::metadata::PageIndexPolicy::Optional);
             let mut metadata_timer = file_metrics.metadata_load_time.timer();
 
             // Begin by loading the metadata from the underlying reader (note