jsonPath().getList returns ArrayList - how to convert to List<String>?

JsonPath jsonPath = response.jsonPath();
List<String> listOfProducts= jsonPath.getList("products.stock.availabilities.status");

 for (int i = 0; i < listOfProducts.size(); i++) {
    String actualProduct = listOfProducts.get(i); 
...
}

throws class java.util.ArrayList cannot be cast to class java.lang.String

response in this case is:

 "products": [
        {
            "id": "1",
            "product": {
                "color": "blue",
				"brand": "Brand"
               
            },
            "stock": {
                "availabilities": [
                    {
                        "status": "IN_STOCK"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "price": {
                "total": "1000",
                "currency": "PLN"
            }
        },
		{
		..
		}
		]

For other JSONs it works (where the listOfProducts is actually a List<String>) but for this one I don't know why it's ArrayList.
How to either convert the arrayList to List<String> or how to servce both (List<String> and ArrayList<String> depending on the json response)?

EDIT:

I want to have this method common for ArrayLists and for List<String>
The products.stock.availabilities.status will be a parameter

You may try another JSON library Josson.

https://github.com/octomix/josson

Deserialization

Josson josson = Josson.fromJsonString(
    "{" +
    "    \"products\": [" +
    "        {" +
    "            \"id\": \"1\"," +
    "            \"product\": {" +
    "                \"color\": \"blue\"," +
    "                \"brand\": \"Brand\"" +
    "            }," +
    "            \"stock\": {" +
    "                \"availabilities\": [" +
    "                    {" +
    "                        \"status\": \"IN_STOCK\"" +
    "                    }" +
    "                ]" +
    "            }," +
    "            \"price\": {" +
    "                \"total\": \"1000\"," +
    "                \"currency\": \"PLN\"" +
    "            }" +
    "        }" +
    "    ]" +
    "}");

Query to Produce JSON Array Node

String expression = "products.stock.availabilities.status";
JsonNode array = josson.getNode(expression);
System.out.println(expression);
System.out.println(array.toPrettyString());
for (int i = 0; i < array.size(); i++) {
    System.out.println(array.get(i).asText());
}

expression = "products.product.color";
array = josson.getNode(expression);
System.out.println(expression);
System.out.println(array.toPrettyString());
for (int i = 0; i < array.size(); i++) {
    System.out.println(array.get(i).asText());
}

Output

products.stock.availabilities.status
[ "IN_STOCK" ]
IN_STOCK
products.product.color
[ "blue" ]
blue

Everyone stated the correct root cause and provided a good solution for it, but that was not what you expect, maybe you want a shorter solution with less code and no more loop. Here you are:

flatten() method will help to convert List<List<String> to List<String>

List<String> listOfProducts= JsonPath.from(json).getList("products.stock.availabilities.status.flatten()");

Your call jsonPath.getList("products.stock.availabilities.status"); will return a List<List<String>>: Both products and availabilities are Lists. So:

List<List<String>> listOfProducts = jsonPath.getList("products.stock.availabilities.status");

for (List<String> statuses : listOfProducts) {
    for (String actualProduct : statuses) {
        ...
    }
}

Your status field is within an availabilities array, so when you're calling getList("products.stock.availabilities.status"), you're actually getting a list of arrays

You can flatten this structure by collecting all statuses in one list, like:

List<List<String>> listOfProducts = jsonPath.getList("products.stock.availabilities.status");

List<String> allStatuses = new ArrayList<>();
for (List<String> productStatuses : listOfProducts) {
    allStatuses.addAll(productStatuses);
}

for (String status : allStatuses) {
    // process ..
}