diff --git a/lib/document.js b/lib/document.js
index b8a517fb8fd..c2857fe9061 100644
--- a/lib/document.js
+++ b/lib/document.js
@@ -2721,12 +2721,33 @@ function _getPathsToValidate(doc, pathsToValidate, pathsToSkip, isNestedValidate
   function addToPaths(p) { paths.add(p); }
 
   if (!isNestedValidate) {
-    // If we're validating a subdocument, all this logic will run anyway on the top-level document, so skip for subdocuments
-    const subdocs = doc.$getAllSubdocs({ useCache: true });
+    // If we're validating a subdocument, all this logic will run anyway on the top-level document, so skip for subdocuments.
+    // But only run for top-level subdocuments, because we're looking for subdocuments that are not modified at top-level but
+    // have a modified path. If that is the case, we will run validation on the top-level subdocument, and via that run validation
+    // on any subdocuments down to the modified path.
+    const topLevelSubdocs = [];
+    for (const path of Object.keys(doc.$__schema.paths)) {
+      const schemaType = doc.$__schema.path(path);
+      if (schemaType.$isSingleNested) {
+        const subdoc = doc.$get(path);
+        if (subdoc) {
+          topLevelSubdocs.push(subdoc);
+        }
+      } else if (schemaType.$isMongooseDocumentArray) {
+        const arr = doc.$get(path);
+        if (arr && arr.length) {
+          for (const subdoc of arr) {
+            if (subdoc) {
+              topLevelSubdocs.push(subdoc);
+            }
+          }
+        }
+      }
+    }
     const modifiedPaths = doc.modifiedPaths();
-    for (const subdoc of subdocs) {
+    for (const subdoc of topLevelSubdocs) {
       if (subdoc.$basePath) {
-        const fullPathToSubdoc = subdoc.$isSingleNested ? subdoc.$__pathRelativeToParent() : subdoc.$__fullPathWithIndexes();
+        const fullPathToSubdoc = subdoc.$__pathRelativeToParent();
 
         // Remove child paths for now, because we'll be validating the whole
         // subdoc.
@@ -2736,11 +2757,12 @@ function _getPathsToValidate(doc, pathsToValidate, pathsToSkip, isNestedValidate
           paths.delete(fullPathToSubdoc + '.' + modifiedPath);
         }
 
+        const subdocParent = subdoc.$parent();
         if (doc.$isModified(fullPathToSubdoc, null, modifiedPaths) &&
               // Avoid using isDirectModified() here because that does additional checks on whether the parent path
               // is direct modified, which can cause performance issues re: gh-14897
-              !doc.$__.activePaths.getStatePaths('modify').hasOwnProperty(fullPathToSubdoc) &&
-              !doc.$isDefault(fullPathToSubdoc)) {
+              !subdocParent.$__.activePaths.getStatePaths('modify').hasOwnProperty(fullPathToSubdoc) &&
+              !subdocParent.$isDefault(fullPathToSubdoc)) {
           paths.add(fullPathToSubdoc);
 
           if (doc.$__.pathsToScopes == null) {
diff --git a/test/document.test.js b/test/document.test.js
index 646934b3b8c..bf4e7ba0630 100644
--- a/test/document.test.js
+++ b/test/document.test.js
@@ -14455,6 +14455,53 @@ describe('document', function() {
     assert.strictEqual(car.vin, undefined);
     assert.strictEqual(car.sunroof, true);
   });
+
+  it('avoids double validating document arrays underneath single nested (gh-15335)', async function() {
+    let arraySubdocValidateCalls = 0;
+    let strValidateCalls = 0;
+
+    const embeddedSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
+      arrObj: {
+        type: [{
+          name: {
+            type: String,
+            validate: {
+              validator: () => {
+                ++arraySubdocValidateCalls;
+                return true;
+              }
+            }
+          }
+        }]
+      },
+      arrStr: {
+        type: [{
+          type: String,
+          validate: {
+            validator: () => {
+              ++strValidateCalls;
+              return true;
+            }
+          }
+        }]
+      }
+    });
+
+    const TestModel = db.model('Test', new Schema({ child: embeddedSchema }));
+    await TestModel.create({
+      child: {
+        arrObj: [
+          {
+            name: 'arrObj'
+          }
+        ],
+        arrStr: ['arrStr']
+      }
+    });
+    assert.strictEqual(arraySubdocValidateCalls, 1);
+    assert.strictEqual(strValidateCalls, 1);
+
+  });
 });
 
 describe('Check if instance function that is supplied in schema option is available', function() {