diff --git a/src/frontend/lightgbm.cc b/src/frontend/lightgbm.cc
index 7aa9d3ab..e5c37df9 100644
--- a/src/frontend/lightgbm.cc
+++ b/src/frontend/lightgbm.cc
@@ -554,25 +554,19 @@ inline std::unique_ptr<treelite::Model> ParseStream(std::istream& fi) {
 
         tree.AddChilds(new_id);
         if (GetDecisionType(lgb_tree.decision_type[old_id], kCategoricalMask)) {
-          // categorical
+          // categorical split
           const int cat_idx = static_cast<int>(lgb_tree.threshold[old_id]);
           const std::vector<uint32_t> left_categories
             = BitsetToList(lgb_tree.cat_threshold.data()
                              + lgb_tree.cat_boundaries[cat_idx],
                            lgb_tree.cat_boundaries[cat_idx + 1]
                              - lgb_tree.cat_boundaries[cat_idx]);
-          const bool missing_value_to_zero = missing_type != MissingType::kNaN;
+          // For categorical splits, we ignore the missing type field. NaNs always get mapped to
+          // the right child node.
           bool default_left = false;
-          if (missing_value_to_zero) {
-            // If missing_value_to_zero flag is true, all missing values get mapped to 0.0, so
-            // we need to override the default_left flag
-            default_left
-              = (std::find(left_categories.begin(), left_categories.end(),
-                           static_cast<uint32_t>(0)) != left_categories.end());
-          }
           tree.SetCategoricalSplit(new_id, split_index, default_left, left_categories, false);
         } else {
-          // numerical
+          // numerical split
           const auto threshold = static_cast<double>(lgb_tree.threshold[old_id]);
           bool default_left
             = GetDecisionType(lgb_tree.decision_type[old_id], kDefaultLeftMask);
diff --git a/tests/examples/sparse_categorical/sparse_categorical.test.margin b/tests/examples/sparse_categorical/sparse_categorical.test.margin
index d5823a0e..ee45f9de 100644
--- a/tests/examples/sparse_categorical/sparse_categorical.test.margin
+++ b/tests/examples/sparse_categorical/sparse_categorical.test.margin
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 -0.036716360109071977
--0.040451733276673375
+-0.088410677452890038
 0.21990291345117738
diff --git a/tests/python/test_gtil.py b/tests/python/test_gtil.py
index 0a2e9196..2d3aa6d5 100644
--- a/tests/python/test_gtil.py
+++ b/tests/python/test_gtil.py
@@ -340,5 +340,8 @@ def test_lightgbm_sparse_categorical_model():
     X, _ = load_svmlight_file(dataset_db[dataset].dtest, zero_based=True,
                               n_features=tl_model.num_feature)
     expected_pred = load_txt(dataset_db[dataset].expected_margin)
-    out_pred = treelite.gtil.predict(tl_model, X.toarray(), pred_margin=True)
+    # GTIL doesn't yet support sparse matrix; so use NaN to represent missing values
+    Xa = X.toarray()
+    Xa[Xa == 0] = 'nan'
+    out_pred = treelite.gtil.predict(tl_model, Xa, pred_margin=True)
     np.testing.assert_almost_equal(out_pred, expected_pred, decimal=5)
diff --git a/tests/python/test_lightgbm_integration.py b/tests/python/test_lightgbm_integration.py
index de766632..7ec1da62 100644
--- a/tests/python/test_lightgbm_integration.py
+++ b/tests/python/test_lightgbm_integration.py
@@ -290,3 +290,29 @@ def test_constant_tree():
     model_path = _qualify_path('lightgbm_constant_tree', 'model_with_constant_tree.txt')
     model = treelite.Model.load(model_path, model_format='lightgbm')
     assert model.num_tree == 2
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('toolchain', os_compatible_toolchains())
+def test_nan_handling_with_categorical_splits(tmpdir, toolchain):
+    """Test that NaN inputs are handled correctly in categorical splits"""
+
+    # Test case taken from https://github.com/dmlc/treelite/issues/277
+    X = np.array(30 * [[1]] + 30 * [[2]] + 30 * [[0]])
+    y = np.array(60 * [5] + 30 * [10])
+    train_data = lightgbm.Dataset(X, label=y, categorical_feature=[0])
+    bst = lightgbm.train({}, train_data, 1)
+
+    model_path = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'dummy_categorical.txt')
+    libpath = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'dummy_categorical_lgb' + _libext())
+
+    input_with_nan = np.array([[np.NaN], [0.0]])
+
+    lgb_pred = bst.predict(input_with_nan)
+    bst.save_model(model_path)
+
+    model = treelite.Model.load(model_path, model_format='lightgbm')
+    model.export_lib(toolchain=toolchain, libpath=libpath)
+    predictor = treelite_runtime.Predictor(libpath)
+    dmat = treelite_runtime.DMatrix(input_with_nan)
+    tl_pred = predictor.predict(dmat)
+    np.testing.assert_almost_equal(tl_pred, lgb_pred)