diff --git a/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandlerSuite.scala b/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandlerSuite.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..9cd610b19c9ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/connector/connect/client/jvm/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandlerSuite.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+/*
+ * 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.connect.client
+
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+
+import io.grpc.{Status, StatusRuntimeException}
+
+import org.apache.spark.sql.test.ConnectFunSuite
+
+class GrpcRetryHandlerSuite extends ConnectFunSuite {
+
+  // No-sleep policy so tests run instantly.
+  private val policy = GrpcRetryHandler.RetryPolicy(
+    maxRetries = 3,
+    initialBackoff = 0.millis,
+    maxBackoff = 0.millis,
+    backoffMultiplier = 1.0,
+    jitter = 0.millis,
+    minJitterThreshold = 1.hour)
+
+  private val noSleep: Long => Unit = _ => ()
+
+  test("RetryException is retried and fn succeeds on second attempt") {
+    // Reproduces the HA failover bug: Kyuubi crashes between queries.
+    // ExecutePlanResponseReattachableIterator.callIter sets iter = Some(newExecutePlan)
+    // then throws RetryException as a signal to re-enter the retry loop.
+    // Without the fix, retry() had no case for RetryException so canRetry returned
+    // false and the exception propagated to user code instead of retrying.
+    var callCount = 0
+    val result = GrpcRetryHandler.retry(policy, noSleep) {
+      callCount += 1
+      if (callCount == 1) throw new GrpcRetryHandler.RetryException
+      "success"
+    }
+    assert(result == "success")
+    assert(callCount == 2)
+  }
+
+  test("RetryException does not suppress a real error on the next attempt") {
+    val realError = new StatusRuntimeException(Status.INTERNAL)
+    var callCount = 0
+    val ex = intercept[StatusRuntimeException] {
+      GrpcRetryHandler.retry(policy, noSleep) {
+        callCount += 1
+        if (callCount == 1) throw new GrpcRetryHandler.RetryException
+        throw realError
+      }
+    }
+    assert(ex eq realError)
+    assert(callCount == 2)
+  }
+
+  test("UNAVAILABLE is retried via canRetry") {
+    val unavailable = new StatusRuntimeException(Status.UNAVAILABLE)
+    var callCount = 0
+    val result = GrpcRetryHandler.retry(policy, noSleep) {
+      callCount += 1
+      if (callCount <= 2) throw unavailable
+      "ok"
+    }
+    assert(result == "ok")
+    assert(callCount == 3)
+  }
+
+  test("non-retryable INTERNAL error propagates immediately") {
+    val internalError = new StatusRuntimeException(Status.INTERNAL)
+    var callCount = 0
+    val ex = intercept[StatusRuntimeException] {
+      GrpcRetryHandler.retry(policy, noSleep) {
+        callCount += 1
+        throw internalError
+      }
+    }
+    assert(ex eq internalError)
+    assert(callCount == 1)
+  }
+}
diff --git a/connector/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandler.scala b/connector/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandler.scala
index 3c0b750fd46e7..119ecc55973d4 100644
--- a/connector/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandler.scala
+++ b/connector/connect/common/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/connect/client/GrpcRetryHandler.scala
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ private[sql] object GrpcRetryHandler extends Logging {
    */
   private[client] def retryException(e: Throwable): Boolean = {
     e match {
+      case _: RetryException => true
       case e: StatusRuntimeException =>
         val statusCode: Status.Code = e.getStatus.getCode
 
diff --git a/python/pyspark/shell.py b/python/pyspark/shell.py
index c7c3d227b6d65..b6981f2d951ed 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/shell.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/shell.py
@@ -50,13 +50,12 @@
     try:
         if os.environ.get("KYUUBI_AUTH"):
             from kyuubi.spark_connect import KyuubiSessionBuilder
-            from pyspark.sql.connect.session import SparkSession as ConnectSparkSession
             _kyuubi_builder = KyuubiSessionBuilder(
                 os.environ["SPARK_REMOTE"],
                 auth=os.environ.get("KYUUBI_AUTH", "kerberos"),
                 username=os.environ.get("KYUUBI_USERNAME"),
                 password=os.environ.get("KYUUBI_PASSWORD"))
-            spark = ConnectSparkSession(connection=_kyuubi_builder)
+            spark = _kyuubi_builder.getOrCreate()
         else:
             # Creates pyspark.sql.connect.SparkSession.
             spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()