Disclosed are a system and method for recognizing an obstacle at the time of parking. The inventive system includes: at least one lateral side ultrasonic sensor for sensing lateral distance data between a user's vehicle and an obstacle positioned adjacent to a lateral side of the user's vehicle; a first course calculation unit for calculating lateral position data and a first course on the basis of the lateral distance data; at least one rear side ultrasonic sensor for sensing rear distance data indicating a distance between the user's vehicle and an obstacle positioned behind the rear side of the user's vehicle; a second course calculation unit for extracting rear position data for the obstacle positioned behind the user's vehicle on the basis of the rear distance data, and for extracting and calculating a final target parking position and a final course on the basis of the rear position data; and a control unit which receives information for the first course from the first course calculation unit so as to control the steering wheel of the user's vehicle, thereby moving the user's vehicle forward or backward along the first course, and receives information for the final target parking position and the final course from the second course calculation unit so as to control the steering wheel, thereby moving the user's vehicle is moved along the final course and automatically parked at the final target parking position.