The invention belongs to the field of optical imaging, and particularly relates to a rotating type optical tomography system based on a linear array detector. The system comprises a reflector set, a cylindrical mirror and a linear array detector which are sequentially arranged in the front-face direction of the to-be-tested face of a to-be-tested object. The linear array detector is connected with a computer. The invention correspondingly provides a method utilizing the rotating type optical tomography system for imaging. By means of the rotating type optical tomography technology based on the linear array detector, meanwhile, the rotating type optical system is adopted, the single rotating device is arranged, the structure is simple, the rotating eccentric effect and the optical system off-focus effect during conical scanning are overcome, the algorithm correction difficulty during later period algorithm reconstruction is lowered, and the system stability is improved.